Forget-Me-Notebook
by RunwithscissorsXXXbattlescars
Summary: In the absence of the Keroro Platoon, Keron sends a new promising platoon, led by former space pirate Zurere, to invade Pekopon. Just one problem: Their ship crashes and all five of the frogs are quickly discovered by Pekoponian kids. Soon, plans turn around as they unravel the whereabouts of the Keroro Platoon… and realize all too late what everything means. –set in the future–
1. Final Resonation

**A/N: The first of two prologue chapters.**

* * *

The great and mighty Sergeant Keroro stood before him, casting a shadow over the land.

"How?" asked the Pekoponian Fuyuki, with tears in his eyes. "How did you…?"

"Invade the planet at last?" Keroro gave a froggish laugh. "Gero gero gero! Fuyuki, you underestimate me."

Fuyuki turned his head at the ground, becoming swallowed in a locked trance of hopelessness.

"And now… without further ado… I shall release my battle drones upon the planet and obliterate it, once and for all!"

The boy's eyes were still at the ground. Still unmoving. Suddenly, a response—a single, resolute syllable—

"No."

Fuyuki stood up before him, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head, adamant and strong.

"I won't let you, Sarge. Pekopon is our planet. It's our home." He clenched his fist with such a determined air that it could make a Keronian soldier have second thoughts. "And if you think for even a second that I will give that up, even after you've taken away everything from me… then you're _wrong_!"

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that, if I were you…." Keroro's eyes narrowed as he grinned and rubbed his chin.

"What do you…?"

"Turn, Fuyuki! See what Pekopon has become now in your midst."

Fuyuki turned around to see his messy room.

"_NO!_" He fell to his knees. "It… it can't be…. I won't believe it…."

"That's right… there's no turning back…."

"Yes… yes there is…!" Fuyuki stood back up. "There's still time! I can still save the planet…. I _will_ stop you!"

"Oh, I don't think so. Gero gero gero!" Keroro thrust his hand forward. "Bow to me, fool!" Lasers shot from his eyes.

"No way!" Fuyuki unsheathed a sword and shield.

"Oh yes you are!"

"Oh no I'm not!"

"Arrrrg!"

"Arrrrg!"

They both charged at each other, and Keroro pushed Fuyuki to the ground. Bursts of light escaped from them as they battled and encircling one another. Keroro ignited his rocket boots and zoomed off into the sky, but Fuyuki grabbed him by the leg and dragged him back down to earth.

"You're not going anywhere until I'm done with you."

Keroro grinned. "You're beginning to sound like your sister, Fuyuki. The one that I happened to"—He brushed his fingers idly on his chest and slipped him a devilish smile.—"feed to the carnivorous slugs?"

Although phased for a moment, Fuyuki became even more enraged and super-powered after hearing this. He charged at Keroro again and looked him in the eye with his cold, blue eyes that sought vengeance.

They dropped their imaginary weapons and started laughing.

"That was too fun!"

"Yes indeed it was, Master Fuyuki!"

"Carnivorous slugs…. Ahahaha!"

"We should play Pretend Invader more often."

"Pphfft… yeah!"

After laughing a little while longer, they caught their breath and let out a contented sigh.

Fuyuki sat back up and leaned against his bed, while Keroro remained lying on his side on the ground.

"Yeesh… you really gotta clean your room, Master Fuyuki." He seemed to be rolling something between his fingers, which he flicked away in disgust.

"Not right now. Maybe tomorrow."

"Master Natsumi yell at you yet?"

"No… not yet…."

"You better not let her know, then."

"She says I have to do my homework first. Just another thing to put off."

"Gero! I know _that_ feeling."

There was another bit of silence between them, until Fuyuki asked:

"You're not actually going to plan on invading like _that_, are you?"

"Psh. No way, Master Fuyuki." Keroro stood up dramatically and stuck his thumb at his chest. "When we invade, I'll be wearing a cape!"

He laughed at Keroro's imagination. "_If_ you invade."

"When!"

"_If_."

"Why… why not, Master Fuyuki?"

"Well, the way I see it, I don't think you guys actually _want_ to invade. 'Cause if you did, wouldn't you have invaded by now?"

He thought.

"Well, Sarge? Aren't I right?"

The question was innocent and curious enough, but still way too blunt. Keroro sat down and threw himself against the edge of the bed beside Fuyuki.

"Hey… Sarge?"

"Yeah?" Keroro turned to him.

"What would happen if… if you really invaded?"

"Gero? What do you mean?"

"Well… I mean…." Fuyuki hugged his knees to his chest. "You know that I've always taken it for granted that you guys will never, and I mean _ever_—"

Keroro began to frown.

"—even come _close_ to invading this planet once and for all—"

"Hey! It could happen!" he protested.

"—but, well, have you ever actually thought about what happens _after_ that? Like… where will you go then? Will you leave Pekopon?"

Keroro genuinely looked at the boy now, since he was so in need of assurance… but Keroro, to be honest… wasn't so sure of the answer himself.

"I guess, what I'm asking, is…. Do you think, Sarge, that… we'll still be friends?"

"I… I don't know, Master Fuyuki."

As soon as he said it, Keroro wanted to take it back. Seeing as planning ahead wasn't exactly one of his strong points, what _really_ could he say to reassure the boy?

He hadn't honestly considered it before—it was something he didn't like to think about, because… no matter how much he wanted to ignore the ugly truth, his platoon and he _weren't_ going to stay on Pekopon forever… emotional attachments or no emotional attachments. It was always a temporary thing, right from the start. Because of that, the future was a scary concept.

And, well, if they did stay on Pekopon… never invading even once… wouldn't _that_ make them the most pathetic invasion squad in the universe.

* * *

_"No… no…! She's dead, Natsumi's dead!_

_"It was that dream again…._

_"But… what if it's not just a dream…."_

_"Oh, no! Look! It's a real, live alien!"_

_"WHO?! WHAT?! WHERE?!"_

_"…_

_"How…_

_"H-h-how did you know?!"_

* * *

That was the day that everything had changed.

Nothing was the same anymore for the six of them. Succeeding in school and leading normal, everyday lives? Yeah, that was pretty much a thing of the past. Now there were different things to be taken care of—What is the next stupid invasion plan of theirs? When will they stop setting things on fire and building weird machines? What's going on when our house starts to split in two? When can I listen to DJ Mutsumi already? Why do they always have to get in the way of things? Why can't they just _leave us alone already_?

It wasn't fair. They never asked to be the ones to have to deal with this. By all means, they shouldn't have.

But every single one of them knew that if not for them stopping the frogs from invading, just as much as the frogs had stopped them from leading normal, everyday lives… Pekopon might have already been invaded.

It was a bit of a sad thought, but some things could not be avoided.

_"We do have our lives to live, you know."_

_"We don't have time to mess around with aliens."_

That's what they were always telling themselves—at first. Wishful thinking, perhaps—because the longer the platoon stayed on Earth, the further and further that end in sight seemed to extend.

It was only a couple of years until that end of sight was completely forgotten.

And it was hardly any different for the aliens themselves.

It was only supposed to be a quick invasion—just a couple of military officers on a foreign planet, seeking to seize some land and create yet a new nobility for their planet to proudly bolster.

But the second that the Keron army took a whiff of that dry Pekoponian atmosphere, dropped that platoon off, and fled with their tails between their legs, the fate of the Keroro Platoon had already been set.

The longer they stayed, the worse it got.

Friendships were made. Emotional bonds tethered them to the Pekoponian ground. Before long, nobody really started to take that invasion mission of theirs really seriously. If they did, who was to know if someday, they might actually succeed? All relationships would then have to be forgotten if Earth were added onto the list of Keron's conquered territories.

No, it was all just child's play…. Something they made up to keep them busy, to keep them from thinking about the truth, the reason for their presence on Earth, and the impending date when they would actually have to get serious and destroy everything that they had come to love on that planet.

The Sergeant's incompetence? If Keron only _knew_.

They had no idea what they were getting into—and what they could no longer escape from.

And now, they were cornered against a wall.

* * *

In a dimly lit room, five figures stood with solemn faces. Confetti and banners were strung everywhere.

He set his glass down. "Now that we're all done partying…."

"The only one who was partying was you, Keroro."

"I helped!" someone put in.

"Um…."

"Well…" Keroro said, "I… just wanted… to make this one last Invasion Meeting fun, you know?"

They all looked down.

"There's nothing fun about this."

Someone cleared his throat.

Keroro took a breath. There would be no more dilly-dallying now; it was time to do what he had gathered them all for—the news that they all dreaded to hear.

"Now, Platoon." He put his hand out at them and dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief. "I know you're all eager to hear the wonderful news… but I deliver it with a heavy heart."

Trying to pretend like it didn't matter to them, either, the rest of them rolled their eyes.

They already knew what he was going to say.

It still hurt to hear.

"There will be… no more invasion."

A pause.

A really long and uncomfortable one.

Then, a hesitant sigh throughout the room. Hardly one of relief. Mostly of anxiety.

"I can't believe… that it took you this long to tell us that, Keroro."

"Yeah. Ya can't say none of us were looking forward to it." Kururu lifted his elbows and tucked his hands behind his head.

"Because none of us _were_," Giroro corrected.

Dororo smiled and raised his hand. "Well, I don't mind it one b—"

"Not even you, Kururu."

"B-but I just said that _I_…"

"—Gero… I'm sorry, you guys…. But… this is the only thing that we _can_ do." Keroro balled his hand into fists. "I don't like it as much as any of you do, but… we can't go on like this… with the way things have come to be…."

They all looked at him with sincere eyes, although most of them quickly frowned.

"It took you this long to realize that? Hmph. Must have been because of—"

"Oh, that's _so_ not what happened, Giroro!"

"Oh, really, now?"

They charged at each other and began to fight.

Kururu had to pull them apart. "Now, now, children. Play nicely, ku ku ku."

Giroro continued to glare at Keroro, panting still from his five-second moment of aggression, when his expression began to soften—into one of fear. Fear of the future. Fear of the frightening question that churned their insides and chilled them all to the bone—_What now?_

_Where are we supposed to go?_

Their old leader brushed himself off and folded his arms behind his back. Now just an ex-platoon stood before him. His eyes flitted nervously around, speaking the same question that they all were thinking.

"So… what next, Mister Sergeant? Or… I suppose I shouldn't call you that anymore…."

"Right. Keroro, _what next_?"

"Well?"

He paused. He was under all their gazes.

"I—I—"

"_Well_?"

"I… I don't know…."

They stepped back in disappointment. More sighs. More hands over faces.

"What next, Keroro. If we're not invading this planet, then what _are_ we going to do?"

"We've talked about it already, Giroro." He bit his lip slightly.

Another sigh.

There were many different answers… many different options… so many other things to do, places to go, and sights to see.

"But… will we all ever see each other again?" Dororo worried.

"I don't know." Their ex-leader shook his head. He really didn't know.

Tears formed in the eyes of the tadpole.

"Well… platoon…." Keroro paused and corrected himself. "Ex…platoon…"

He put his hand forward. One by one, each put his hand on the first.

"…it looks like this is the last time… we may be all together… for a very, very long time…."

They took their hands off and proceeded to wipe their eyes, some sniffling a bit.

He looked into all of their eyes.

"Shall we resonate one last time?"

"…All right."

"Gerogerogerogero…"

"Tamatamatamatama…"

"Girogirogirogiro…"

"Kurukurukurukuru…"

"Dorodorodorodoro…"

But that was such a long time ago that it could hardly be remembered.

* * *

**A/N: I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.**


	2. The Pekopon Protection League

**A/N: Part two of the prologue.**

* * *

Pekopon was just a few light-years away now.

"Senior Private!" the captain barked. "Destination secured, I presume?"

"Yes, Captain!" The Senior Private saluted him from the work her work station, a circular pad that surrounded her on a platform elevated from her captain by the cockpit. Her fingers danced rapidly across the green lights spread out before her as she made some last quick adjustments. "I've just calculated this out. In just about a half an hour is when we'll be in the thermosphere of Pekopon."

"Ah. Then it appears things are going smoothly," the Combat Medic observed with a hint of a smile.

A purple-skinned Keronian let out a yawn and stretched her legs out. "Just a half an hour longer? …_Yesss_! My legs are _so_ tired!"

"Have fun stretching them all you can, because the second we land, you're gonna be up on your feet again and you're gonna have to be fast."

"I know. I can feel the excitement pumping through me!" She placed her hand in the air. "In no time at all, Pekopon will be all ours!"

"That's right." The Senior Private touched her finger to her chin. "This is your first time invading, isn't it?"

"Right! And it's so not fair," she pouted. "I should be an invader now just like the rest of you."

The Senior Private gave a small sigh and rested her elbow against her dash. "Well, at least you actually get to _be_ out there and fight… instead of being holed up in some enclosed room filled with wires and lights…."

"Senior Private, we've already discussed your duty in this platoon. I will not have any complaints from you," said their captain with an intimidating look of authority. "And _especially_ not thirty minutes before we land on the planet itself."

"R-right…." A sweat-drop slid down the side of her face.

"Well, I think it's fantastic that you're able to understand that complicated technology!" put in her gray-skinned comrade.

She forced a smile. "Thanks…."

The new recruit, the youngest one, placed her elbows on the edge of her station and looked up at her two platoon mates. "Don't you think it's weird?"

"Don't you think _what's_ weird?"

"That Pekopon's never been invaded before." She put a finger on her cheek. "I mean, yeah, it's definitely not the _biggest_ planet out there—but it's definitely one of the most diverse ones. It hasn't even been around that long, and look at how many names it's got already—Pekopon, Pokopen, _Earth_. And think about it—countless other aliens have visited the place! …And yet, not a single native Pekoponian knows about the existence of aliens."

The Senior Private gave a bit of a scoff. "I'm sure there have got to be _some_."

"They've theorized, certainly. And they've got solid evidence, yeah. Even though they don't know it." She giggled. "I guess that's another thing that makes them unique. Pekoponians are one of the stupider species!"

"New recruit!" the combat medic chastised. "Don't discriminate Pekoponians. You've never met one before so you don't know what they're like."

"Just like how _you_ had never met a normal Keronian for years, huh, Zuriri?"

"Oh, come on, you know how to say my name—and I am _too_ a normal Keronian!"

Their captain touched his chin absentmindedly. The new recruit did have a point about the oddities of Pekopon. He pondered this, his hands back on the controls, as he gazed out toward the large, curved pane of hyperglass that displayed space. Some white plumage from his hat just barely drifted into his eyes, and he tossed it away. Spanning before him, the vast emptiness of space seemed to lead on forever, revealing only rarely a hint of a star or distant meteor. How disappointing. He would have liked to have a bit of fun and steer the ship dangerously away from it, driving his platoon into an asteroid pit and having to find away to dodge them all and just barely escape with their lives.

That was the kind of excitement he was looking for—and he was sure as hell that they wouldn't find it on Pekopon, one of the calmest planets for an alien yet. His hint of a smile twisted into a frown.

He hoped this would be quick.

And he wondered if his platoon was even ready for this—his new recruit, his bumbling tech officer, his estranged medic, and… his currently useless one. Useless but now less annoying.

"Well. Platoon. Shall we resonate?"

He hoped to reassure himself. Maybe they _could_ all work together in this….

"Very well, Captain."

With the ship set to auto-pilot for just a moment, they all abandoned their positions and stepped forward to form a circle, even the Keronian in the corner who quickly caught on to what was happening.

"Zurezurezurezure…"

"Dokidokidokidoki…"

"Xuyixuyixuyixuyi…"

"Purapurapurapura…"

The last one smiled and opened his mouth.

"LATA! LATA! LATA! LATA!"

"Zu…"

"—Ah, Captain! He's doing it wrong again!"

"Yes…. I know." Their captain put a hand over his face in exasperation. "Private First Class, you're being too loud."

"You know he's not gonna listen."

"I'll tell him," said the Senior Private. She walked over to him and quickly signed some things with her hands, and he seemed to understand. He became silent once again.

Everyone let out their breath.

"And I thought we would never have to hear a word from him again…."

"Ha! Yeah, you wish."

"If you really don't want to listen," the Senior Private suggested, "why don't you just turn off your ears the next time?"

"Turn off your…. What?"

"You know, so you can…. Oh, never mind."

"…Back to your work stations, platoon."

The captain put his fingers to his temples. Oh, he did wish that they could all work together, just once. But of all the times that he had to be wrong about his platoon… not _now_.

* * *

"Keep your knees up, soldiers! You're not prancing your merry way through any old park; this is a battlefield you're on! And you there!" He pointed a gun at the head of the collapsed body that was gasping for breath. "Just what do you think you're doing? If this is you on the frontlines, you would have died already!"

"B-but this training is just too hard, Commandant…" the poor person wheezed as he flopped over onto his back.

The edge of the gun, however, continued to nuzzle by his pointed, dull green ear as he waited to regain his breath.

"It's loaded this time."

"E-EH? REALLY?"

Ah, that got him up on his feet.

"Now back to your drill!" he commanded. The dull green-skinned person resumed at once.

With a satisfied air, he flipped his gun around once and it vanished into the air.

Behind him, the stone door smoothly opened and another green body stepped into the room with a very inconspicuous look in his eyes. "Fun training the recruits, Giroro?"

"Not really." Giroro let out a huff and gazed forward at them. "Training the seniors was more my forte."

"Ah, well, it's not my fault that Tamama had to take a sick day…."

"Eh, I guess you're right about that."

"I bet those seniors feel pretty lucky that they get to skip out on a day of advanced training, huh?"

He shook his head. "I wouldn't be snickering if I were you. It can't always be training for these guys. Keroro, they need actual battle experience sometime—"

"Ah, but that's not going to happen, don't you see!" Keroro interrupted. "Pekopon belongs to us now. Everyone knows that. And any planet who thinks that they can send an invasion fleet here knows that they've met their match when Commandant Master Natsumi goes into battle with the advanced troops!"

"Yeah, but the last time that happened was _five years ago_, Keroro. An incident like the battle against the Norekians probably isn't one we're gonna see again."

"You've just gotta keep your hopes up!"

He gave him a good, nice pat on the back.

"Oh! That's right." Keroro smacked his fist into his palm. "I came here for a reason. You're needed at the Communications Center."

Giroro frowned. "Geez, again? What is it this time?"

"Not quite sure. Though I think Kururu said something about unknown spacecraft approaching Pekopon."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's too far away to identify yet. We're pretty sure it's not Pekopon's, or one belonging to a planet Pekopon's in treaty with, because otherwise they'd have sent a greeting signal."

"Hmm… better take a look at it, then." Giroro approached the doorway and pressed a button by the handle. "Warrant Officer Shlambeg! Your are entrusted with the supervision of the recruits for the duration of my absence."

"Yes, sir!" Shlambeg saluted him.

Giroro left with Keroro through the door.

Shlambeg turned to the troops, who were now no longer running in place. He grinned.

"All right, troops, the moment you've all been waiting for! You may now all take a bre—"

Giroro opened the door again. "I should also add that we will be keeping _close watch_ on things." He shut the door, making sure to secure it so that it was locked.

Shlambeg dropped his head in disappointment, and the recruits resumed their routine.

Just outside the room, Keroro and Giroro used the floor panels in the hallway to transport themselves to the Communications Center faster, where dozens of officers of various species and color were seated at their circular work stations that surrounded them. The only one without a circular work station surrounding him was the yellow frog.

"Kururu! Status report," Keroro said.

After some quick typing across his keyboard of assorted lights, he sat back and scrolled through the screens of info before him. "Ku ku ku. The spacecraft is currently 5 billion miles from Pekopon as of now. However, its destination has definitely been confirmed to be Pekopon. Should be about half an hour till it arrives."

"A foreign body?" Giroro wondered.

"Looks like one, since it's not sending out any friendly signals. Ku ku!~"

"Any signals at all?"

"I've tried to pick up _something_," he responded. More typing. "All of _my_ signals are being intercepted somehow."

"Is it no threat, then?"

"Not at the moment, no," Kururu answered. His eyes drifted back up to the translucent screen.

"Ah! It just passed the asteroid belt!" Keroro noticed.

"Oh? It's traveling quite fast, then." Kururu gave a chuckle. "Advanced technology such as ours ain't hard to come by these days."

"Well, that's why we have you," said Giroro.

"Yeah, ku ku ku, enjoy it while I'm here."

They watched as the spacecraft zoomed closer and closer to Pekopon's orbit. Kururu's large screen slowly zoomed in to match the decreasing distance between the two.

Keroro noticed something. "That asteroid is shaped a bit like a cake…."

"You've been worrying waaay too much about Tamama today, haven't you," Giroro huffed.

"Gero! Speaking of which, Dororo and I are gonna go to Alien Street later today to find some medicine for Tamama. You wanna come with, Giroro?"

"Ah, no, actually…" Giroro rubbed the back of his neck. "Girara's got another doctor's appointment later today."

"Someone else can't take her?"

Giroro shook his head. "No."

"Ku ku ku… you know, _I_ could perform the check-up."

"Don't even _think_ about it."

"…Plus, you'd charge way more," Keroro pointed out. "Just make sure she's not gonna come down with the same thing as Tamama. Pekoponian doctors don't have any way to treat alien diseases."

"Well, that's certainly something that I'll be sure to look out for."

"Hey, you two…." Kururu broke into their conversation and pointed to the spacecraft. "It's past Mars now…."

"Aren't you going to do something, Kururu?"

"Course I am. Just not yet."

"Why not—?"

"Nng!" Kururu abruptly sat up as something caught his eye.

"What is it, Kururu?"

"It disappeared…."

"Yeah, that's what happens when you don't do anything about it."

He entered some commands into the controls, and the large screen before them zoomed closer in to where the space craft had last been.

"How odd!"

Giroro touched his chin. "Looks like it really is gone…."

"How can that be?" Keroro wondered.

"I'm not quite sure." Kururu did some more typing. "But… I can't seem to detect its source… or where it went."

There was a long pause. Giroro and Keroro waited for Kururu to break the silence with some idea of his regarding what to do next.

But all Kururu did was thrust his hands up into the air.

"Well. Not my problem anymore; ku ku ku!"

"K-Kururu!" Giroro raised his fist, looking like he was going to pulverize the guy. "This could be a really big problem!"

"Sorry. You said only four hours. I've been here five. And I've already run the updates on your month's worth of defective technology." He chuckled, eyeing Giroro. "Midas' touch, as they say."

"What did you say. I heard that. _Say it one more time, why don't you._"

"Anyway." Kururu dropped himself out of the chair and put his hand out.

"Hm?"

He wiggled his fingers toward himself.

"Oh. Right." Giroro left the room to transport himself elsewhere. When he returned, he handed the check to Kururu.

"Let's see…. Hmn, looks like the amount's right. Oh, and you even added that extra bonus for distracting the Cosmic Police. How generous of you, ku ku!"

Satisfied, Kururu began to walk off. He turned around and gave a salute to Giroro and Keroro. "Best be taking my leave now, y'all. See ya some other time. Ku ku ku!"

Giroro and Keroro watched mercifully as he stepped onto a circular floor panel and vanished in a vertical flash of light.

From another panel in the ceiling, a blue ninja dropped down.

"Oh! Dororo!" Keroro rushed up to him.

"Commandant! Master Sergeant!" Dororo bowed his head to both of them. "The Yamazuki AIS* project did not go so well. His anti-form has malfunctioned in the middle of the street and three Pekoponians have witnessed him. Shall I proceed with UPAE** counseling, or should we erase their memories instead?"

"Hm…." Giroro considered.

"Erase their memories!" Keroro piped up. "It was only a short encounter, right? And it should never happen again. So a bit of the old memory-erasing shouldn't harm them too much."

"Commandant?" He looked to Giroro for approval.

Giroro gave his nod. "Yes, I suppose that will have to do."

"Very well. I shall prepare them for the procedure." Dororo flitted back away into the ceiling.

In a hushed voice, Keroro turned to Giroro and asked, "Hey, wasn't AIS Master Koyuki's job?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it was," Giroro whispered back.

"And it's it the fourth time this month that an AIS project failed?"

Giroro was about to snicker, but he lifted his fist to his lips and turned it into an awkward cough instead.

"Gero gero gero."

"Eventually she'll start taking her own tips. You'll see."

"Don't forget that the one who appointed her to that job was you, Giroro."

"Yeah… I damn well know that."

* * *

*Alien Integration into Society

**Unplanned Pekoponian-Alien Encounter

* * *

**A/N: Anyone have any suggestions for better titles and ranks for these froggies? I'd love to hear 'em.**

**Don't count on hearing about the Norekians again. I just chose a random name.**


	3. Summer Camp

As the later part of the evening approached, the air filled with that fresh scent of midsummer. The crickets started up their chirping for the day again, and in a nearby pond, clusters of frogs could be heard.

Teri was leaning against a tree. It was the middle of summer camp and he already had nothing else to do. Any task that needed to be done was being taken care of by other people. In a nearby cooking cabin, the scent of dinner wafted about and mingled with the incoming sea breeze as older highschoolers and their "junior explorer" helpers cooked away. Other kids gathered around counselors as they chatted excitedly about their day exploring.

As Teri glanced off to the side, he spotted a friend of his approaching, but he was too tired to lift up his hand and wave him down. Instead he just felt his eyes beginning to droop shut. So… hot. So… sleepy.

His eyes shot open as something large zoomed noisily through the sky.

"_AAH!_"

Teri jolted up. He whipped his head to either side of himself, then looked up at the sky, where the sound had come from. He rubbed the back of his neck. "What the _heck_ was that…?"

His friend Yaoe jogged up to him and brought himself to a stop. "Have a nightmare, Teri?" he teased.

"No—did you see it?"

"See what?"

"The thing in the sky?"

"Um… what thing in the sky?"

"The one that just went past!" Teri put his hands on his hips. "You _did_ see it, didn't you, Sosuke?"

"I'm Yaoe."

"Oops. Yaoe. You saw it, too, right?"

Yaoe scratched his arm. "Please tell me you're not imagining things."

"I'm _not_. I really heard it. And it came from the sky."

"I… think you were just spacing out again, Teri."

Teri stared at him a moment, maintaining his frown of irritation, when he grunted in defeat and slumped back against the tree.

"Figures if I _did_. Summer camp seems a lot more boring this year than it did last year, huh?"

"Yeah." Yaoe sat down next to him and plucked up some grass by his hand. "It's probably 'cause we're teenagers this time, so it's not that exciting anymore."

"Ah… you think that's it?" Teri looked at his hands and clenched those fists of thirteen years. He certainly felt a bit different. Could there really have been all that big off a change?

"Yeah, I think so. Summer camp's fun when you're a kid. But the second you hit the teens, then you just… grow out of it."

Teri glanced a bit of a ways away. "Kind of like Merion over there, huh…."

"Yeah! All he's been doing this whole time is _sketching_."

"Like that's any different," Teri laughed. "The guy's practically a whole year older than us, anyway."

"He is?"

"Uh-huh. Well, almost. Not like it matters."

Yaoe snickered. "I'm sure that's what you want to think."

"Hey!" Teri batted him lightly with the back of his hand.

"Okay. Well. _I'm_ gonna go wait over at the tables to eat dinner. You can come with if you want to."

"Nah, I think I'll stay here," Teri told him.

"Really? You sure?"

"Yeah." He picked up his notebook and waved it a little. "I think I'm going to write some more."

"Well, okay. Your choice." Yaoe stood up and walked off.

Teri opened the notebook and flipped to the latest page, which was a little more than halfway in. Considering it was such a thin booklet, it was almost just about finished up, too.

_Good thing I brought some more along, just in case…_ he thought.

Under the few paragraphs of text under the date "8/14," he placed his pen and continued where he last left off.

_I was talking to Yaoe just now. Before that, I could have sworn I heard something in the sky. Plane maybe? I'm not sure. Yaoe said I imagined it. I probably did._

He paused, thought, and then continued writing.

_I can smell dinner from inside the cabins. It's really boring having to wait, though. Already a week into this summer camping trip, and I can't wait for it to end. I can't let any of the counselors or younger kids notice, otherwise they'd probably give us all some speech on how we have to be good role models for the younger_

"Hey, Teri, whatcha writing?" chirped a voice older his shoulder.

"Augh!" Teri slapped his notebook closed and whipped around to face the girl standing behind him. He let out his breath. "Oh…. Hanayu… it's just you."

"I'm here, too," said the boy beside her.

"Oh… so both of you are here…."

Teri's eyes flitted off to the side, searching for the butlers in the shadows. They usually popped out when you least expected it.

"Um… you two don't want to go off and play with Neroko, by any chance…?"

"No." Hanayu smiled, adamant.

"We want to see what you were writing," said the boy next to her with a sly little grin.

Teri narrowed his eyes at him. "No way José, Himani."

"Then, we want to play hide-and-seek with you!" said Hanayu as she grabbed the arm of her twin. "Right, Himani?"

"Exactly as she says."

"You guys are too old for that."

"No we're not!"

"Well, there's no way you can hide from me when you're dressed like… _that_."

Himani looked over his sister's attire. "He's got a point, Hanayu."

Hanayu lifted both edges of her skirt and began to frown at her dress resembling that of a gothic lolita's.

"It could work…."

"Only if you change."

"Fine! I will." Hanayu angrily stomped off to go to her cabin and change. Himani and Teri said nothing, as they knew what to wait for. They began to hear noisy shouts of anger from the hut as the realization hit the eleven-year-old.

"Augh! I don't have any normal clothes!"

Teri let out a sigh. "You'd think she would have planned ahead this year…."

"Some people just don't change," Himani commented.

"_Tell_ me about it." Teri eyed him.

"_What_?"

"Oh, nothing." He turned away, slightly amused.

Himani wasn't paying attention anymore, the little snoop. While the younger boy's attention was focused on his twin sister who was away, Teri flipped open his notebook to continue the sentence he had been writing when the twins had cut him off.

_campers. Like I would be a good role model for them!_ Teri looked around. _Like any of us older kids here would, come to think of it. Even Yaoe and Sosuke get into trouble a lot of the time._

_Hanayu and Himani asked me to play hide-and-seek with them. At least that's something to do. Right now Hanayu's trying to find something else to change into because all she's been wearing this whole week are her weird gothic kid dresses._ _Don't know how she's been able to survive summer camp this long. But I guess she can just always get new clothes if she runs out, since she's rich. And so she can buy stuff like that._

When he saw Hanayu approaching (now in more practical wear), Teri shut his notebook and stored it away.

"All righty, then. You two ready?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Hanayu gave him her best smile.

Teri turned his head to the tree and shielded his eyes to start counting, but something pushed at him.

It was just Himani. "Away. I want to count this time."

"Fine, fine." Though he didn't really care, Teri reluctantly let Himani have his spot at the tree.

_Someone could at least have taught the kid to say "please,"_ thought Teri. _As in, "Please tell me I did NOT act like him two years ago…."_

As Himani started to count, an excited Hanayu sped off into the woods to seek the best hiding spot. Teri wandered off a ways, and then considered where he should hide.

_What am I even doing, thinking about this!_ he asked himself. _We're in the middle of a thick forest. It should really be easier than this._

Heading to the closest tree, Teri grabbed onto the lowest-hanging branch and lifted himself up onto it. All those after-school sports in school managed to help, after all. He brushed himself off a bit and continued on to the next branch, and the next, and so forth, until he was well a ways up the tree.

"…two… one… zero!" Himani's voice finished somewhere off in the distance.

From above him, Teri's eyes followed the boy as he searched for his sister and cousin.

Despite how it was a child's game, Teri felt the smallest of excited tremors zap through him. He passed it off as just unnecessary adrenaline and tightened his hold on the thick branch beneath him, which was covered in moss, though he didn't mind. That made it all the easier to grip. Even if he did get bored of summer camp at times, he had to admit that the nature there was pretty astounding, like all the varieties of trees.

Hide-and-seek was still a kid's game, hardly one to be enjoyed by two eleven-year-olds. Still, the thought—however silly—pushed through his mind, _As long as he doesn't look up, I'll be safe_….

Teri continued to watch from above as Himani found his sister, and the two of them proceeded at once to seek out Teri. As they walked ahead, Teri felt inclined to keep watch of those two. He leaned forward a bit so he could still see them. Feeling unsteady, he moved his hand in front of him so he could lean further, when all of a sudden, he found that the moss he had placed the heel of his hand on was slippery with moisture. Teri desperately struggled against gravity, but as avoiding it was inevitable, his cheek met with the tree branch as he fell forward.

Luckily, he hadn't made a sound. Teri sat back up on the branch and breathed a sigh of relief, until he realized that something felt a bit off….

He glanced downward—So that was what it was. Something was falling through the branches… something small, thin, and brownish-red….

It hit him. _My notebook! I dropped it!_

Frightened, Teri could do nothing but watch as the booklet slipped further and further away from him. The pages, flipping about, hit wet moss and were bent more with each impact, causing Teri to wince each time he saw the poor thing get battered.

Finally, with a satisfying _thussh_, the notebook came to a halt on the ground.

Teri began to lower himself from the branch he was on. Game of hide-and-seek or no game, he had to save that notebook.

The hint of adrenaline, however, continued to pulse through him as the miniscule thought tugged at the back of his mind—_I can't let the twins spot me. I can't let the twins spot me._

Teri became quieter in his movements down the tree, completely by subconscious. Eventually he reached the last branch and swung himself down the grass. He picked up the notebook and flipped it open, carefully inspecting all the pages to make sure that no damage was done from the fall. …Well, at least the writing in it was still legible. Teri let out a sigh.

"Found him!"

"What?" Teri swerved around. As he had expected, behind him were the twins. They had spotted him standing on the grass in plain view.

Although partially disappointed, Teri gave them a smile. "Ha ha. I guess you did find me. Okay, you win!" He shut the notebook and slipped it into his back pocket. "Hey, do you smell that? Smells like they've finished dinner to me."

"Ooh." Hanayu grinned and began to wander off, until she turned around, grabbed her brother by the wrist, and dragged him off with her.

* * *

The dining tables—which were actually just wooden picnic tables with a fancy name—were separated into two groups, which were the tables under shelter, and the tables situated outside. While his two cousins chose to eat on the inside tables (and very prestige ones, at that—the glories of rich kids), Teri always preferred to eat outside and enjoy some of that dwindling evening sunshine, right around that hour where the sun slipped behind a few select trees and turned a whole few streaks of grass golden-yellow.

Teri sat between his two best friends, Yaoe and Sosuke, as he ate. He downed his food at a rapid pace.

"Well you're sure hungry for having done next to nothing this whole day," Sosuke commented as he eyed Teri.

His eyes still focused on his food, Teri retorted with his mouth full, "I'm a growing kid, okay!"

"Yeah, and besides, this food is _good_." Yaoe nibbled on some sort of meat. "Never tasted anything like it."

"Heard they got one of the new Junior Explorers to help them out in the kitchens," said Sosuke.

"Wait… you mean…." Yaoe looked at the piece of meat in horror. "They _chopped him into bits?_"

Sosuke laughed. "Save the horror stories for the cabins, Yaoe. I _mean_"—He waved some vegetable in front of his friend's face and gave it a chomp.—"some kids can cook like you wouldn't even know!"

"I wonder who it is…" wondered Teri. He bit the end of his chopstick gently, since he'd already finished his meal. He felt a nudge on his shoulder.

"Maybe that guy."

Yaoe was pointing to a small dark-haired kid that had just set a bowl of soup down at a nearby picnic table.

"I hope you enjoy the meal tonight!" said the kid as he gave a bow.

Sosuke laughed. "Aww, he's so cute."

"Hey, Teri. Isn't that your sister's friend?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so, actually."

Yaoe tapped his chin. "Now, what was his name again…"

Teri shrugged. "Dunno. I'm not so good with names."

"Oh, well. You could learn a thing or two from him. _He_ seems to have been enjoying this last week."

"A bit _too_ much," Sosuke commented.

"What's wrong with that?" Teri gestured to the kid with his chopstick after he took it out of his mouth. "That was probably me four or five years ago."

"Except you had better table manners back then." Sosuke put his hand over his mouth and snickered.

"It doesn't matter because this is summer camp and you don't need table manners when there are no adults around, Yaoe."

"I'm _Sosuke_."

Teri smacked his forehead with his palm. "See, I _told_ you I'm bad with names!"

"No kidding…" Sosuke muttered.

"Teri that's the fourth time you've done that today."

"It's a… phase?"

They both gave him looks.

Teri shrunk down. "Uh… sorry. Summer… heat?"

"Suuure it is."

He diverted his eyes away from them, then to the grass, and to his empty dishes. "I'd better—I'd better take these up and put them away. Want me to take your guys' too?"

"Sure." They handed their dishes to him, since they had finished, as well.

After disposing of the dishes in the wash-tub for them, Teri came back to their table and placed his chin on the back of his hands.

"So now what do we do?" asked Yaoe.

"I dunno. Be bored again."

"But… but that's _boring_."

"Yeah. That's the point."

"And what else are we gonna do?"

"Nng…."

"At least it beats being in school."

"Don't remind me…" Yaoe groaned.

Sosuke and Teri groaned, too.

"Oh… hey, you find a tutor yet, Teri?" Sosuke casually asked.

"Tutor?" He blinked. "Tutor for _what_?"

"Tutor for…. Tutor for _school_? Duh."

"Why would I need a tutor?"

"Maybe because, I don't know, you're failing?"

"Figures, with a train of thought like his…" Yaoe said under his breath.

"What?" Teri frowned, refusing to believe this news. "But—but the new school year hasn't even _started_ yet!"

"Yes it has. First quarter done and you're already _failing_, Teri. That's amazing."

"What? No—no, no!" Teri shook his head adamantly. "If I was _really_ failing and needed to find a tutor, then I'd have written about it in my notebook." He reached his hand in his back pocket to take it out, which he opened and began to flip through. "Here, I'll—I'll show you guys."

7/21

_Oh Teri you'd better not forget this because it's really important. You're FAILING the eighth grade already and it's only been a quarter into the school year. Find a tutor and QUICK! before you get distracted this summer. You got that? You'd better!_

The edge of his mouth twitched as he read the note to himself.

"So… believe us yet?"

"But… but this can't be…."

Yaoe and Sosuke gave solemn nods.

Teri slapped his notebook down onto the picnic table. "Right. And _now_ you're going to tell me we're already a week into summer camp or something!"

"Um, _duh_?" Yaoe put his palms out at both his sides. "Where are we now?"

Teri's mouth twitched again.

Sosuke just laughed. "Teri, you space cadet…."

_Summer camp's over in a week…._ All the realizations hit him at once._Summer camp's over in a week, and after that, I'll only have one week to find a tutor! Because I'm failing school! Failing school already and I can't believe I haven't thought about it until now! And to think this was going to be just another boring summer trip…._

_Oh, geez, what am I going to do?_

* * *

-**_In which Scissors writes about summer camp, something she has never experienced before_**-

**So yes. Tell me if I'm getting anything wrong.**


	4. You'll Get Over It

**A/N: In this chapter you will experience reading several new names. Make no attempt to remember them. They are not important.**

**This chapter used to be super long until I took out the boring parts. Is it still boring? Tell me after you read.**

* * *

"So, how long are you just going to pace around in circles and freak out?"

Teri frowned at Sosuke, completely unamused. He resumed his pacing and freaking out.

"Well?"

"This isn't a matter to be at all calm and composed about! If you were in this situation, you'd be freaking out too."

"Ehhh, probably. Except I would've thought about it beforehand," he pointed out.

"You don't understand!" He threw his hands up in rage—mostly at himself. "I'm failing. Failing! We've only got two weeks until we return to school. And then, if I don't find a tutor quickly enough, I'll just go _back_ to failing!" He tore at his pink hair anxiously.

"You're worrying too much," said Sosuke. He leaned back. "It's summer. You should just relax… ease off the worry. Then you can start worrying again when we get back to school."

"I don't have _time_ to not worry!" Teri insisted.

"I'm sure you'll get over it," said Yaoe. "You'll see."

Throughout the remainder of the day, Teri did not get over it.

During the after-dinner play and song festivities that the "junior explorers" performed, Teri just continued staring out the window into the creeping darkness while everyone else enjoyed themselves.

One group of kids had just performed a stunt where they dunked one of the counselors into a tub of water. The audience burst into laughter; Teri amidst all this did not flinch at all.

Yaoe gave Teri a nudge. "You gotten over it yet?"

"No," said Teri. "How could I take my mind off it for even a second?" He crossed his arms and turned away from his friend, returning his gaze to the window. Yaoe just shrugged and continued watching the funny stunts.

Later, it was Sharing Time—the time for which everyone shared their most spectacular memories during that day or funny events that happened or some speech about the importance of friendship and teamwork.

Everyone sat on wooden logs around the campfire, and the opportunity to share passed from person to the one next to them in turn. Eventually it reached Teri.

"So, Teri," spoke one of the counselors. "Tell us about what you learned today."

Teri had still not gotten over it.

"I learned," said Teri with a grave face as he gripped his fingers against the edge of the log, "something very awful."

"And what would that be?" The counselor looked concerned.

"I don't really want to say it."

Yaoe nudged Teri and whispered, "Hey, Teri, you gotten over it yet?"

Teri broke into a rage. "No, I have not gotten over it yet, Yaoe! What makes you think that I would have?"

"Gotten over what?" The counselor's voice dropped to a hushed whisper. Her mind analyzed all the possibilities of this connotation. Goodness forbid it should be like last year's incident, in which one child transformed another into a friendly forest dolphin completely by accident. That child, however, was found out to be a witch, and was burned at steak. That is not a typo.

"I—I'm just doing a little badly in school, that's all." Teri rubbed his arm nervously.

So did the counselor. This child's failure in school undoubtedly meant that he was a witch as well because he did not understand regular human subjects. She turned away and began to dial for help on her phone.

But all the other children had a grin spread over their faces, as they new instantly the next thing to tease a kid about.

Teri shamefully looked off to the side, diverting his gaze from one particular blondie whom he knew would _never_ let him live this down.

"P-proceed to the next person!" His elbows resting on his knees, he cradled his chin in his hands.

"My turn? All right! Well today, I discovered that the secret to everything in the universe that can't be explained is actually…."

"OH MY GOSH LOOK AT THAT KILLER BAT IN THE SKY!" one kid shrieked.

The entire crowd of kids craned their necks upward. The kid sat back down.

"Never mind, it was actually just a leaf."

Everyone groaned and they went onto the next kid.

After Sharing Time was over, camp procedure was to prepare for bed, since all the rest of the events during the day were usually done by that point, since it was too dark to see anything.

Teri had finished showering, making his bed, and sorting everything. He was now standing by the mirror, brushing his teeth half-mindedly with Yaoe by his side.

"Sooo… have you gotten over it yet?" Yaoe had to ask.

"Ro! I haf ROF gohheng ofeh ih yeh."

"Uh… what?"

Teri tossed some water into his mouth, swished, and spit it out into the sink. "I said, No! I have NOT gotten over it yet." His eyes narrowed. "This had better be the last time you ask that."

Yaoe just grinned and tilted his elbows upward, placing his clasped hands behind his head.

"Seriously, Yaoe. I'm probably gonna go to _sleep_ with this on my mind."

"You sure? You should really just let it go and enjoy the rest of summer while it's here…." He dropped to a mutter. "Well at least you're not freaking out about it anymore."

Teri's voice became quieter. "Not on the outside."

Yaoe blinked and took a few steps back.

"You'll get over it."

"I don't know why you keep saying that."

It was around ten PM when everyone from their unit was settled into their bunkers, one hour past the time that they were usually supposed to be asleep. What the counselors didn't understand was that two hours before midnight was the absolute perfect time to _not_ be asleep.

Although it was nighttime, the moonlight illuminated the outside world with bluish hues; the affect of night—it appeared darker inside the cabins than it did outside, even without any sun as it was right now.

Teri sat on his bed, the bottom bunk, by the window. In his hands was a book of some sort, which he read using a small light. Some of the kids in the cabin were playing cards together. Sosuke was actually trying to sleep.

Yaoe sat up in his bed. "Hey, Teri. You gotten over it yet?"

"Gotten over what?" Teri's eyes did not leave his book.

He paused, resisting the urge to snicker. Instead a smile played across his face and he reached for a flashlight. "Perfect. Then I think it's about time for our favorite part of the night…"

"Sleeping?" someone suggested.

"No."

With a flick of a switch, the flashlight turned on, casting light up onto Yaoe's face in a chilling manner.

"…_horror stories_."

Teri groaned. "Do we have to?"

"Yes!" Yaoe insisted. "You love horror stories, don't you, Teri? Don't we _all_."

"Uhh, not really."

"Fine then. You get to start." Yaoe tossed him the flashlight, and Teri made a grab for it so it wouldn't fall. However, the book he was reading did, and he winced as both book and reading light clattered to the ground, causing the light to turn off.

"Wh—! Why do I have to start!"

"Because you want to the least." Yaoe put his finger up to make his point. "You should know that, if this was a horror movie, the most reluctant character would be the one to live the longest!"

"I don't even know how that works."

"And then, the most annoying person would be the first to go."

Teri grinned. "Then I suppose it's been nice knowing you, Yaoe."

Yaoe frowned.

"All right, then." Teri pointed the flashlight's gleam onto his face. "A long time ago, ten boys sat telling horror stories in their cabins at summer camp."

Someone nudged Yaoe in the arm. "Ooh, he's bringing it closer to home. Scary."

"They thought that at first, they would just be having a little fun, but little did they realize that the cabins of their summer camp had been built upon an _ancient_ cemetery filled with the souls of vengeful murderers… and that the ghosts of the murderers particularly liked listening to their horror stories, because they did everything that they could to make them come true—

"—which was why the counselors' suspicions began to rise when some of those ten boys began acting strangely… jittery, more easily surprised, and always as though they were afraid that they would be the next to go.

"The boys of those ten who did fall victim to the torments of the ghosts, however, usually had their souls extracted from their body, and the ghosts took their place, leading the bodies of the boys through the rest of their summer camp days like nothing had happened at all.

"When they returned home, however, the ghosts who had possessed the bodies of the boys decided that it was time to reveal their secret. That night, when their families were sleeping peacefully, the ghosts in the bodies of the boys… _murdered them all_."

"Is that the end?" someone asked.

"Yeah."

"Wow, you're really bad at telling horror stories."

"That's why I _don't_, Iwatsura." Teri tossed him the flashlight, which he caught perfectly.

"All right, now I'll tell one. Hmmm… twenty some years ago, a big arc appeared in the sky all throughout the world. No one was quite sure what it was, but it blocked out the sun and terrified millions.

"Everyone gave their own theories as to what it was. Maybe it was some sort of weird eclipse. Or some government thing that the public wasn't being told about. Some said it was the work of dragons."

"I'd agree," said a Merion by the window as he sketched by moonlight.

"But _whatever_ it was, an awful thing began to happen, and cities became crushed. Military planes were taken down. Plants and animals died everywhere. A great monster had awakened."

"Suuure. That's toootally scary."

"It was huge!" Iwatsura insisted. "More huge than anything you can imagine. The world was in a complete panic! They didn't know what to do. Eventually, they decided to send someone out to slay the monster—someone who nobody particularly liked. But this man was no ordinary man. He had his own tricks up his sleeve. In an amazing act of vengeance and hunger mixed into one, the man unhinged his jaw and gobbled up the monster in one bite."

Everyone listening to the horror story did not look frightened. Just disgusted. Disgusted and confused.

"Soo… what's the scary part?" one kid asked.

Iwatsura took a pause. "When he returned home, everyone still had to deal with him. They weren't so happy when he came back alive."

"Well I'd be pretty scared too if I saw someone who had just eaten something bigger than their whole face."

"Yeah, I guess that's a thing, too."

"Okay, okay. I've got a horror story."

Iwatsura passed the flashlight onto the next kid, who placed it under his chin.

"Many, many centuries ago, in a regular house in a regular village, a family of five was murdered by some unknown force that had left no trace.

"The villagers looked for any clue they could find… until they realized that this murder was committed by what could only have been…"

The angle of the light on his face shifted slightly for effect.

"…_aliens_."

"Pshh that's just dumb."

"Yeah, aliens aren't that scary."

"You don't even know what an alien looks like."

"Probably like your _mom_."

"What! How could you say that?"

"Hey, you guys are all telling stories about stuff that happened _years_ ago," said one kid, "but what about scary stuff that's happened in the present? Like, did you hear that one of the counselors was just shipped off to a mental asylum for reporting that one of us was actually a witch?"

"Yeah right, Akuro. You're just making stuff up."

"I am _not!_"

"Hey," Sosuke suggested, "I know a horror story about a really big flood that almost destroyed half the world—"

"I can't believe that you would call my mom…"

"HEY!" Yaoe shouted. Everyone fell silent. "Hush it already and give me the flashlight. I've got this one."

They passed the flashlight down the distorted circle of campers to Yaoe, who grabbed it firmly and positioned it under his chin.

"Now I just want to make it quite clear—" Yaoe narrowed his eyes. "—that this story is indeed one hundred percent true."

The kid next to Teri gulped. Teri just rolled his eyes.

"Do you remember… hearing that recent story of the man who had his head cut off on the news?"

"Uh… no."

"Well, it did happen. And there's more to the story. More that"—he paused—"they kept from the ears of the public."

Yaoe talked slowly. "It began fifty years ago, in a small village near the ocean. Two twin girls, one who everyone loved because of her kindness, and one who everyone avoided because of her trickery and deviousness, lived together with their family. The evil sister one day grew so jealous of her twin that she did something awful and frightening to the village.

"That day…" said Yaoe as he took a slow breath, "the people of the village were convinced that she was an evil spirit. So after discussing what to do in secret, they broke into her house at midnight, captured the girl, and threw her into the sea to save their village from any more trouble.

"…In the morning of the next day, the other sister went down to the beach to see the body washed up."

Yaoe's hands were shaking as he held the flashlight below his chin, even though it was he who was telling the story.

"It was… the wrong one.

"The evil twin had survived when her sister had not, but everyone took her for her sister. They treated her with love. She even got her sister's fiancé. But the evil twin began getting haunted by her sister's ghost… scratching at the door of their house… calling 'let me in… let me in….' One day, her sister's fiancé happened to walk past and recognize the ghost in horror.

"He realized instantly that the twin who survived was not the right one.

"Enraged that he had been lied to, he entered the house, grabbed a knife, and cut off the head of the evil sister. He thought that would be the end. But three months later, he awoke in the middle of the night to hear something tapping against his window. A bit sleepy, he lit a light to see what it was.

"And in the window… it was none other…"

Yaoe made a scary face.

"…than the floating, _decapitated_ head of the evil twin.

"Terrified, the man did not move and inch…. He could see the head's lips moving, though no sounds were coming from it…. And finally, in a raspy voice, he heard it—

" '_It's your turn now_.' "

"The head crashed through the window, shattering all the glass! A sharp tentacle stretched out from underneath the tendons of the floating head's neck, and just as fast, the man's head fell right off his body!"

Silence in the room. Yaoe composed himself and continued.

"But the monster was not satisfied. It now desired more people to end up with its same fate, still thirsting to collect the heads of men to assure itself of its beauty…."

Yaoe lowered the flashlight onto his lap. His face was now indistinguishable from the darkness.

"I want to tell you all again. This is a true story.

"I heard from my cousin that he saw the floating head once when he was out in the forest at night with a friend. It was completely dark, so it was impossible not to see the floating, white, ghost head.

"The head had turned to him, and with a small grin on its face, it spoke the same words as last time…

" '_It's your turn now_.' "

"Then it charged at them.

"My cousin and his friend ran away from it as fast as they could. My cousin made it, luckily. …His friend did not."

With a nervous sideways glance, Yaoe almost whispered, "I don't know where the head is now…."

The flashlight flickered off. In the pitch-blackness of the cabins, everyone could hear each other's whimpers of fright.

All except Teri.

"Nice story. Good night now, everyone."

Even in the darkness, Teri could tell that Yaoe is frowning. "You mean… you're not scared?"

"Why should I be?" Teri flopped against his bed. "It's just a bunch of made-up stuff."

"How do you know that it can't happen?" Yaoe challenged.

"Because it can't." He moved his arm under the pillow so he could have more to lean his head against. "Have you ever _seen_ a real ghost before?"

"Didn't I just say that my cousin did?"

"How do you know your cousin wasn't making things up?"

Yaoe opened his mouth, about to answer, until he realized an answer would be better off not given.

Another boy spoke up. "People are always talking about ghosts. They couldn't have just all made up some story that's the same as everyone else's. How do _you_ know they're not real, Teri?"

"They just aren't." He sounded confident. "It's impossible. They're just made up to scare you. Or because people wanted to blame something else for all their troubles."

"We all know that the only thing to blame here are little kids."

"Heh, yeah, maybe it was always just little kids who caused floods and monsoons and disease and death and suicides and anything else that might be bad."

They fell silent.

"Th-that's actually pretty scary…."

"You're right…."

"Let's not think about it."

"Okay."

Everyone collectively pulled their blankets up over their heads. The cabin was completely silent.

Teri shut his eyes and tried to get himself to relax… not to say that he was at all phased by Yaoe's made-up stories, certainly. He just wasn't all that sleepy. To make matters worse, he could think so much clearer now in bed.

In fact, he began to vaguely remember something previous that had been on his mi—

His thoughts were cut short when he heard something crack outside.

_Is one of the younger kids up at night?_ Teri wondered. _I'd better go see why they're up…. A small night-walk might be good for me, too._

He dragged himself to a sitting position on his bed, slipped on some shoes, and left through the door, much to the perplexity of the people he shared the cabin with.

Teri flicked on a flashlight and pointed it at the ground and at the entrances of the other cabins. No one there.

He pointed it toward the trees. "All right, you. Now what do you think you're doing so late at ni—"

The flashlight dropped from his hand.

Something was moving through the trees—He could just barely make out white hair on the back of a head.

Just a head and nothing more.


	5. Ghost Girl

**A/N:** **I feel like Teri needs to slap someone with his notebook, so that this title can make sense. You know. Like the forget-me-stick in Megamind. "Biatch, Imma slap you with this flimsy spiral-bound collection of loose leaf papers!"**

* * *

Teri's voice was stuck in his throat; so was his breath.

All he could do was gape, and watch, horrified, as the floating white head continued to move until it passed out of view.

He fell to his knees and gripped his head. _No, think, Teri… there has to be come reasonable answer to this…. What you just saw was NOT a ghost!_

He was chilled to the bone.

At a mad speed, he picked up the flashlight and dashed back into the cabin, practically slamming the door behind him. All other nine people who had almost gotten to sleep turned to a panting, frightened Teri.

Yaoe could not resist. "What's wrong, Teri? You look like you just saw a _ghost_."

Everyone except Teri laughed.

Teri just glared at him, set the flashlight down, and returned to his bed… where he drew the covers up to his ears and didn't speak a word the rest of the night.

All he could think about was what he had seen.

The words pounded through his brain as if in sync with his heartbeat. _Not. Ghost. Not. Ghost. Not. Ghost. Not. Ghost._

Many minutes began to pass. His eyelids were drooping shut.

_Not… ghost… not… ghost… not… ghost… not… ghost…_

* * *

Teri jolted up in bed. "Not ghost!"

Someone turned to him. "What'd you say about The Host?"

Teri just blinked.

He looked around. It was daytime, and it seemed that everybody else was already up.

He couldn't fall behind schedule. Teri stood up out of bed and went to go prepare himself for the day.

For some reason, though, he had woken up with thoughts of ghosts in his head….

Oh, thaaaat was right. That was because he _saw_ a…

Wait a second.

Teri froze as he brushed his teeth. The memory was coming back to him.

A shiver ran up his spine. The thing he saw last night in the trees. No… that couldn't have been a ghost, could it have been? Ghosts weren't real. His eyes must have been playing tricks on him. Or… maybe one of the younger kids were playing tricks on him.

Another chilling thought: _There's nobody here in summer camp who's got white hair…._

As he returned to the main cabins with everyone else of his age group, Teri could feel that his legs were shaking, unsteadying himself. He hoped desperately that no one would catch it. They'd tease him, no doubt—especially after what he'd said last night.

Outside the main cabins, while Teri kept to himself, the counselors announced the itinerary for the day—a morning hike, from eight to noon, followed by swimming events by the ocean, which included teaching some kids how to actually… you know, swim. Hiking groups were generated at random. Or, based upon how nice your counselor was to have planned ahead of time what people you would stick with.

And of course, Teri's counselor, being _so_ thoughtful generous as he was, made sure that Teri would be in a group with his _darling_ younger (rich, very rich) cousins.

Teri's eyes scanned down the list of names for his hiking group to see who else he was stuck with. Yaoe R… Shiseko I… Emanon C… Neroko K… Akuro R… Sosuke O… Kuyuii L… Samyu L… Aika I… Hanayu N… Himani G… Merion H… Kohizou A… and of course, Teri H. at the bottom.

Teri frowned, despite the fright that mingled in the back of his mind. That was odd. They messed up Himani's initial. Oh well.

Just then, an idea passed through his head. A really strange one that may or may not work, since he was so desperate to assure himself. The hiking trip could be disregarded for the time being. Instead, he needed to find that ghost and catch it… if it was even real, that was—which he highly doubted.

_I'm not sure that what I actually saw last night was a ghost,_ thought Teri. _So I suppose there's only one way to find out._

He prepared for the hike, packing everything he would need to set out and conquer this newfound, petty fear—spray paint, a large bug net, a bag, firearms… whatever he thought was necessary. His backpack for the hike proved to be larger than it should have been. He also brought his notebook, of course. Couldn't go without that.

He knew it was absurd to think that he might be able to catch a ghost in broad daylight. Some of the forests just at the edge of the hiking path they were taking were particularly dark, so chances for spotting one would be better if he took to the trees.

Teri met with his hiking group after he finished preparing. Around him were all familiar faces, since he had met so many people during the last week.

"Well, you packed a lot," someone said when he saw Teri's bag. It was just Merion. As usual making comments to get on Teri's nerve. He knew the routine.

"Not that it'll be hard to carry." Teri smiled and shifted the bag over his shoulder. "I've carried heavier before. Up steeper hiking trails."

"Oh really, now."

"Really."

"And I bet you were going barefoot too?" the blondie challenged.

"You never know when you might lose your shoes."

They stared each other in the eye, glaring.

"Oh just go make out already!" one girl yelled at them.

That shut them up.

For the beginning of the hike, Teri didn't speak to anyone else. Thoughts of catching the ghost were on his mind. It was only about half an hour into the hike that he decided he should split off from his group. He tapped Sosuke on the shoulder.

"Hm?" Sosuke looked over at him.

"I'm going to be right back…. If anyone asks where I went, just tell them that… I… went to the restroom, all right?"

"Okay."

Teri began to walk off, when he heard Sosuke tell him from behind, "Don't get hurt!"

His eyebrows bent into a puzzled expression, and he kept walking.

As he reached the edge of the trail, he reached into his bag and took out something vital—the notebook. He flipped it open to a blank page and began to write out directions on how to get back to the main trail.

_So if I'm walking BACK here… then… that means that if I take a right now, I'll be going left then._ He quickly scribbled something down and entered the trees.

The light vanished quickly as he ventured deeper into the woodland, and his eyes began to adjust to the change in brightness. He had good nocturnal vision, so making his way through a dark forest should have been a piece of cake, after all. A sense of anxiety ran up him as he anticipated the unexpected sight of the floating head at any time. The bottom of his nails turned a faint purple.

A part of him wanted to tell himself, _Oh what am I thinking. Floating ghost heads. Pshh. It's just some story that Yaoe made up._ But there was another part of him that said, _If I just lie to myself without ever knowing what it was for sure, I know this is going to eat away at me…_. So he grabbed the net from his bag and positioned it by his shoulder to be an the ready… just in case.

Another half an hour quickly passed. Back in the hiking group, Sosuke and the others began to worry for Teri and his evidently troublesome bathroom habits that got him lost easily. But Teri hiked on through the woods, letting no branches hang in his way. He eventually came upon an unmistakable clearing that let the sunlight in—all the trees nearby had been blasted away, creating a tunnel-like dome through the forest as if something had blasted right through.

"Whoa," Teri breathed. Was the forest always like that? It looked new. He took note of this landmark in his notebook and continued onward.

His feet began to tire, although he pushed himself to make do with it. After many more minutes of searching, Teri sat down in exasperation and put his head in his hands.

_I knew it_, he said to himself. _I knew it. What was I thinking. What I saw was just part of my imagination, no doubt_. He looked around. _Besides, this forest is way too big for me to find what I'm looking for. I should just turn around and_—

There was something faint in the distance that his eyes settled on, which cut his thoughts completely short. Something white…. He squinted, as to see clearer. It wasn't just "white." White _hair_.

Like lightning, sort of, Teri got to his feet. He began to walk. Then run.

The closer he got, the more it was confirmed to him. Undoubtedly. White hair on a head. He couldn't see a body attached to it. It was cradled in the grass.

Teri whipped up his net and smacked it down over the head. Finally, he had caught it! Now he could see for sure if it was actually a ghost.

…Up close, he could finally tell that it _wasn't_ a floating head.

It was indeed attached to a body.

Teri's eyes widened. Well, this was awkward….

The girl yawned and sat up, stretching her arms in the air. She sleepily opened her eyes, settling them on Teri.

She screamed.

* * *

Jolting, the girl smacked her back against a tree, holding her hands in front of her in a defensive position.

Teri had no idea what had just happened. With his foot, he kicked away the net that had fallen to the ground. He felt like a total idiot.

The girl simply looked at him with fearful eyes, trembling in his presence. Teri sat down in an apologetic position and lowered his head.

"Oh my gosh…. I am _so, so sorry!_" He bowed to her desperately and pleadingly. "I am such an idiot! I didn't know it was just someone who had fallen asleep in the middle of the forest…." He paused, realizing how weird that sounded. "Wait a second." Teri looked up at her. "Who are you? I don't think you're in this summer camp…."

She definitely didn't look like anyone he knew. Light hair, long and separated into two tails down her neck. Not completely white, now that he had a closer look—there were shades of violet in it, as well. She certainly didn't look like she was well-suited for hiking. And those green eyes…. They just gazed at him in puzzlement.

"Ah!" Teri smacked his fist into his palm before she could respond. "So it must have been _you_ that I saw wandering around last night! Haha, I knew that there was answer…." He didn't know how he could have mistaken her for something of the paranormal. She was actually kind of pretty. Maybe it was because it had been night, and everything seemed a little off just an hour or so before midnight.

The girl frowned at him. She brushed herself off and stood up. "You are going to forget that any of this happened."

"Uh… wha…?"

"That is what you are going to do." She looked down at him resolutely, then began to walk off. She let out a small cry and fell back to her knees.

Teri watched worriedly from over her shoulder. "Wh-what happened?"

"M-my ankle…."

Meekly, she took her hands off of her ankle and showed him an area of swelling.

"Ah… that looks like a sprain to me…" diagnosed Dr. Teri.

She bit her lip.

"Here. Maybe we can—"

As he stepped forward, the earth beneath him gave way and tumbled out, leaving nothing beneath his feet or the girl's. Caught by surprise, she grabbed onto his shirt, while he grabbed onto the branch of a tree.

"Erg… was that… supposed to happen…?"

"I don't think so…" she said.

"All right, hold on a second. I'm going to hoist you up, okay? You're going to have to grab onto that branch beside you, 'cause I don't know how steady the dirt is right now…."

"Okay…."

Teri let her grab onto his hand, and used all his might to lift her up out of the hole that he had created. She only let go of him when she had grabbed onto the tree branch closest to her and wrapped her arms around it. He then he brought himself onto another branch close by and tested the ground below it with his foot. It seemed sturdy enough, so he hopped down.

But when he walked over to the girl and put his hand out, all she did was give him an odd look.

"Well? You can't walk, can you?"

She shook her head.

"We can go look for my hiking group. Our counselor's got a first-aid kit with some ice in it. I'll have to carry you there, though."

She looked off to the side.

"Here, you can get on my back if you want."

Reluctantly, she let go of the tree branch and slipped onto his back. Teri grabbed onto her legs at both his sides, and bent down to retrieve his notebook. He frowned at the backpack, knowing that he'd just have to leave it.

"All right. You ready?"

She nodded, even if he couldn't see it.

He headed off.

* * *

"So, what's your name?"

"Hope…." Her voice was rather meek.

"Oh." Teri blinked. "That's a pretty name. Well, mine's Teri." He adjusted his grip on her legs for a moment so that she wasn't slipping any longer. "So, um… do you sleep in the forest often, Hope?"

"Nope," she answered. A pause. "I was actually, um… looking for some people. They came through here recently so I thought I might find them…." She trailed off, leaving her sentence sounding as though it was meant to be a question.

"Well… I'm sure that after we get your ankle fixed up, you can go look for them again."

"They're probably gone by this point…" she said.

A sigh came from her. She was such a quiet girl, Teri thought.

"Sorry…."

"Sorry for what? I'm the one who should be apologizing. After hitting you with a net and all…."

"What?"

"Uh, nothing."

"N-no, I just meant…. Sorry that you had to… carry me…."

"It's okay," Teri dismissed. "You're not heavy."

"I—I don't go on foot very often…."

_But I found her in the forest,_ he thought. He pictured her riding a carriage through the woods with a top hat and cane. It was quite a strange thought.

"So, um, where is your hiking group?"

"They're on the trail. We're still in the forest." Teri glanced down at the set of directions he had written in his notebook. It was a bit harder to hold and position it so that he was able to see it with Hope's leg slung over the crook of his elbow.

"Ah! You wrote directions in your notebook?" She was looking over his shoulder. "That's really smart!"

"Mm… thanks? I guess…." Teri looked off to the side. "I use notebooks for a lot of things." He laughed a bit nervously. "Of course, they'd be a lot more useful to me if I didn't keep losing them all the time."

"Oh." Hope quieted down again. "I-I'm sorry."

"Um? It's okay." He laughed again. "It's not your fault."

She squirmed a bit uncomfortably on his back. Teri lowered his eyebrows. If she kept doing that, this trip back to the hiking trail was going to take a lot longer than he had expected.

Since his directions were so precise, they made it back to the hiking trail in only about half an hour. He checked his watch. 9:45 Thank goodness. It wasn't nearly noon yet, which meant that his hiking group was still on the trail. He just needed to catch up with them… although he had no clue how long that would take.

He took a breath. "All right, Hope. I'm going to start running from here on out. That okay with you?"

"I'm fine with that," she said coolly.

Teri raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, although he did smile a bit. He handed his notebook off to Hope to hold. With a push of his foot against the ground, he broke into a run. It was a steep hiking trail with many branches hanging overhead, but he managed to dodge them and continue onward without letting Hope or himself get smacked in the face.

He was a fast runner—no pausing to catch his breath, no stopping to smell the roses or any other eye-catching wildlife that was actually quite harmful on closer inspection, as roses were.

It was in just about fifteen minutes that he managed to catch up with the group. They were all quite surprised to see that he had survived from his trip to the restroom. None of them had really high hopes at that point.

"He's back!" Sosuke shouted.

Their counselor turned around. "Really?" He headed toward Teri. Then he frowned and put his hands on his hips. "You've been gone for almost two hours now. Where have you been? You know that you're not supposed to split apart from the…"

Hope peered out from behind his back.

"…group…." The counselor shook his head. "Who is that?"

"Who?" Teri asked. Then he laughed. "Oh. Right. This is Hope."

"Uh… hi." Hope gave a shy wave.

Sosuke and Yaoe's jaws dropped.

"You're telling us," said Sosuke, "that you left in the middle of a hiking trip—usually your _favorite part_ of summer camp, might I remind you—to go searching in the woods for a girl, of all things?"

"Uh…."

"He didn't find me," Hope cut in. "I found him. By dropping from the trees onto his back."

Sosuke blinked at her.

"I'm a leech."

"No you're not."

"I can prove it," she said.

"Suuure you can."

"Uh… I actually carried her here, Danya," Teri explained to the counselor. "She sprained her ankle and needs first-aid."

"Mm-hm." He took his hands off of his hips, looking up and down Hope. "Let's see this ankle, then."

Hope was lifted off of Teri's back and given a fallen log to sit on as the counselor inspected her ankle. After confirming that it was sprained, he dug through his backpack to get the first-aid kit that had ice in it. Gently, he applied it to the swelling. This earned a wince from her, though her expression of pain quickly faded.

The other hikers campers in the group, meanwhile, marveled at this mysterious stranger.

"Wow! You're so tall!" one of the younger girls said.

An older girl laughed. "Nah, she's really short."

"Her hair is all funky…. Are you a foreigner?"

"Or maybe an alien!" said a little black-haired kid.

"Neroko! Don't be rude," Teri scolded her.

Many of the kids there looked at him strangely.

"What? I just…"

"_I'm_ definitely not an alien though." Neroko cupped her elbows in her hands. "Nope."

She just looked off to the side.

Somebody coughed.

"So! Um." Akuro tried to change the subject. "You found her in the forest! What…. What was she doing there?"

"Maybe that's where she lives."

"No." Hope giggled a little. "Actually, I was in the forest because I was plotting the quickest way to start a forest fire."

Everyone gasped and looked at Hope in horror. All except for Teri, who started laughing.

"Teri!"

"But it's funny! She was just joking."

"Aw, yeah, you're right." Hope smiled innocently. "Um…" She averted her eyes. "…by the way…"

"Yeah?"

"…th-thanks… for helping me." She was twiddling her index fingers together.

"Oh. Right. No problem." Teri gave her a thumbs-up and a smile.

"I wish I could repay you…." She sighed.

Yaoe and Sosuke exchanged a glance. They grinned and walked up to Hope. Bending down, they whispered something into her ear.

"What?" She looked at them. "What's that?"

They whispered something else.

"Oh, that? Yeah, I think that I could do that! I could definitely do that!" Hope stood up and clenched her fist. "Teri, I will be your tutor!"

Her moment of drama was cut short as she fell back down onto the log to grabbed her ankle in pain. "Ow, ow, ow…."

* * *

**A/N: Well if you haven't guessed it yet, the first arc of this fic is going to be OC-centric.**

**If that frightens you, think back to Pekopon Revolution.**

**Remember Nanori and Himeya?**

**Yes. Yes, you do. Now you probably like Teri, don't you?**

**Also, for those of you who are easily entertained, I suggest you scroll back up to the list of names in Teri's hiking group and read each last initial.**


	6. Teri's Twin-'tailed Tutor

Admittedly, that was one of the weirder days of Teri's summer camp experiences. Seeing what he thought was a ghost. Finding out that it was actually just some girl in the forest. And somehow, his two friends deciding that she'd be his tutor.

"But I don't need a tutor," Teri had insisted to them. And they reminded him, for the appleth time now, that he _did_ need a tutor because he was failing school.

"Ohhhh, right," Teri recalled. His face fell forward onto the tree trunk in front of him and Yaoe and Sosuke almost thought they heard him say a bad word.

"I'm sure your friend Hope will be a fine tutor," Sosuke said to him. He nudged Hope with his elbow. "Hey, you're smart, aren't you? And you're probably good with regular subjects. Mysterious new characters usually are."

Teri's head rose up. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"Hmmm…." Hope thought for a moment. "I don't really know…. I've never gone to school before…."

"Aaaaahahaha… Teri you're screwed," Yaoe laughed.

"No! I mean, I've been homeschooled."

"Ah!—Ohhhh."

"Come to think of it"—She put a finger on her chin and looked up.—"I haven't been to summer camp ever, either. What's it like?"

"Oh, um." Teri thought. "Well you get to do stuff like hiking and swimming. You get to hear stories and meet new people and make friends."

"Really?" Hope grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. "I want to do that! Can I?"

"Um…." His eyes wandered away from hers. How did she become so cheerful suddenly? This girl confused him. "You know, that'd be great, but I don't know if it's legal to—"

Hope was already giddily running away from them, her twin tails swishing behind her. "I'll go make the arrangements right away!"

A few minutes later she came back, wiping the sweat off her brow, and with a smile on her lips.

"All done! I get to be in summer camp now."

"Um… so, what did you do exactly?"

"Oh, uh, I just entered my name in on the roster and filled out some more stuff. It's all good."

Teri just blinked at her. "Do your parents know?"

She made a face. "I guess it's time to make up some excuses…."

Teri laughed, the edges of his eyes curving downward as he covered his mouth with the back of his hand. Hope smiled softly at him, and he smiled back in a contented silence. She confused him, a lot… but she really did have quite lovely green eyes. For a moment, he got lost in them.

Yaoe and Sosuke watched from in between the two of them.

"Okkkay, summer camp's officially gotten twenty percent weirder."

"No kidding. I'm way weirded out about what just happened."

Summer camp also became twenty percent less boring, too. Perhaps even higher than that. As the days passed, Teri didn't know what it was, but there was something about this new girl that was really exciting. Though she may have been shy when they met, he could tell that she was beginning to feel more comfortable around him. She quickly donned the cheerful and funny side of herself that made his days so much more fun.

There wasn't a single challenge Teri put her way that she backed down from, be it racing each other, or climbing trees, or swimming, or anything else—a fun little kind of competition between the two of them, unlike his rivalry with Merion, which… wasn't so fun.

And she was pretty rad at telling horror stories, too.

Everything about her was new and alluring. Even if other kids were weirded out about it, Teri sure wasn't. Even though she was still a bit of a confusing stranger, oddly it was… in a very intriguing sense, he came to realize. He still wasn't quite sure what it was that caused them to get along so well with each other.

On the last day of summer camp, Yaoe and Sosuke were quite impressed that Teri had not stressed out about failing school the whole entire rest of the week.

"It's because of Hope, isn't it?" Sosuke asked him. "I mean, you've been doing _everything_ with her this past week…. Not even the counselors can separate you two." He touched a finger to the side of his chin and smirked. "You've taken quite a… _liking_… to her."

"Yeah!" Teri clenched his fist. "She's going to make a great tutor, isn't she?"

His two friends face-palmed.

By the time late afternoon rolled around, everyone was beginning to depart from summer camp and return to their homes. After saying good-bye to his friends, seeing Hope off, and waving to his cousins as they drove off in a deluxe limo, Teri sat on a log fence and wrote in his notebook about the events of that day under the date "8/24" as he waited for his own ride to come.

_Well, that's the end of summer camp this year. It's a bit off a shame, since I was just beginning to enjoy it… but I suppose there will always be next year._

_Just exchanged phone numbers and emails and such with Akuro Hagakeru, Tochi Iwatsura, Aika Ikatando. I wonder when I'll see them again._*_ I'll definitely see Hope again, though, since she's going to be my tutor so that I won't be failing at school anymore. How awfully nice of her. She's so nice. And she's really fun. Really pretty, too. I wonder if she thought I was fun, too. I hope so. I wonder if that sentence sounds weird._

As he saw a red car pulling up, Teri quickly shut the notebook and shoved it into his bag. The car slowed to a stop a few feet ahead of him and the back door opened up.

"Teri!" A young blonde girl popped her head out.

"Hi there. Move over a sec." She ducked her head so he could toss his bag in behind her. Then he shut the door and entered the passenger's seat, next to his dad who was driving.

"Where's mom?" he asked, looking around.

His dad started driving again. "Your mom wasn't able to come, sorry. She's still at PPL headquarters finishing up some extra work."

"Oh… that's too bad." Teri wasn't all that surprised. His mom and dad were usually busy like that.

Behind him, his little sister folded her arms around the neck of his seat. "Did you miss me, Teri?"

Their dad quickly glanced up toward the rear-view mirror. "Put on your seat-belt, Girara."

"Yeah, I missed you," said Teri. "It wasn't the same without you there."

"Was Kohizou there?"

"Yup. Yup he was."

"What about Shiseko?"

"Mm-hm."

"Neroko too?"

"Definitely."

"And Kuyuii?"

"Her too."

"And Oblivion?"

"Uh, I don't think he's ever gone."

"Oh yeah." She paused. "What about—"

"Yeah, all of them were there, Girara."

She frowned and thunked her back against her seat before finally putting her seat belt on.

"Sorry you couldn't come," Teri said to her.

Through the rear-view mirror, he could see her folding her arms over her chest.

"Are you still sick?"

"The doctor said I might die!" she said with a big smile.

"No. No, he didn't. Don't lie to him, Girara," her dad told her.

Teri just laughed. "Yeah, she's better, all right."

They waited at a red light momentarily, and their dad tapped his tan-skinned fingers on the steering wheel as he waited. After the light turned green, they took a left to get to Tokyo.

"Summer camp was helpful his year? Bet you learned lots of survival training…."

"Uhh, no, I'm pretty sure that's boot camp you're thinking about."

"What? You sure?" His dad laughed.

"Oh—but I _did_ find a tutor though."

"Tutor?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "Tutor for what?"

"For… well… school." Teri's voice was hesitant. "I need one, don't I?"

"Why would you need one?"

"Um, 'cause I'm failing?"

"You… haven't told me this."

"Oh… oops."

His dad was silent for a moment, until he assured him, "Well, it's not like you learn anything useful in school anyway…. Just be sure not to tell your mother."

"Uh, sure?"

"What is Teri failing?" Girara asked from the back seats.

"Personal conversation, Girara," said Teri.

"Don't worry, Teri. I think you'll win!"

"Uh, thanks, but it's really not a competition of any sort…."

Their dad covered his mouth and laughed a little.

When they arrived back at the house, Teri unloaded his bags into his room and tossed his notebook onto his bed. He flopped down onto the bed himself, stuffing his face into his pillow. The smell of home, after having not seen it for two weeks, was comforting. No more of Yaoe's over-exaggerated horror stories. No more having to babysit his bratty younger cousins… for now. But there would be no more fooling around with Hope, either. Starting tomorrow, she was going to be his tutor.

Teri went to his nightstand and picked up his cell phone, one thing he had not been allowed to bring to summer camp. He turned it on and inserted Hope's phone number into his list of contacts. Momentarily pondering whether he should ask her where she could meet him, his finger hovered over the buttons. He decided that she'd agree to go to his house, so he texted her the directions. Afterschool sports wouldn't be starting until October, so that would give them plenty of time to go through the lessons. He couldn't wait to see her again.

The next day was when Hope came to his house, strolling past the door like she had a really important job to do after a bow and a brief "Hello!" to Teri's parents and then an "I'm looking for Teri." And then she headed up to Teri's room with no explanation following.

Needless to say, Teri received an interesting talk from his parents afterward….

But anyway.

They got down to business at once, and Hope proved to be a pretty competent tutor for someone who had never tutored really anyone before. She knew her way around most of Teri's problems, and they worked out a way to help him retain the information. (The keyword was review. Lots and lots of review. …50% of the time it didn't work much, yeah, but it was better than nothing, at least.) Teri actually really needed the help, as he soon realized. His friends had been right.

Wasn't he surprised when he showed up to school again on the twenty-eighth and saw Hope in his class wearing the school uniform.

"H-Hope?" He could not contain his surprise.

Hope giggled. "I thought I could help you more if I knew what lessons you were having in school."

Still, he looked rather dumfounded.

"Ah! But school with everyone else my age… I've never done it before. I bet it's going to be so fun!" she said. Then she gave a twirl, displaying the uniform on her. She clasped her hands at her chest with a cheerful smile. "Doesn't it look nice on me?"

"Y-yeah…." He trailed off.

"Hm?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," he quickly said. "And… thanks a lot for the tutoring."

Hope gave him a funny look. "Are you all right?"

"What? Of course I'm all right. I—I—What do you mean—"

"I don't know, you're face just looks kind of red, that's all."

Frowning, Teri covered his face with his hand and raced off.

Sure enough, Hope stuck to her promise and continued to come to Teri's house after school each day to tutor him. She was quite right—now that she had miraculously enrolled herself in his same school, she had a better understanding of what particular subjects he was struggling with. There was a method to her madness after all.

The afternoon after the second day of school, their tutoring session had just ended and Hope never failed to amaze him. He could already feel the good-student-ness beginning to well inside of him thanks to her kindness.

"Wow." Teri shut his math book. "Thanks for all your help again today, Hope!"

"It's no problem." Hope gave him a smile and looked up at him shyly, her head tilted down.

Teri did not respond. He just cast his eyes to the ground as he walked her to the front door.

"U-um… sorry I wasn't much help with your social studies and Japanese literature," she apologized.

"That's okay."

"I'll be sure to get a lot of books on those so I can be more help the next time after I've done some research."

She was looking off to the side, clearly with something on her mind. Teri gazed at her, Hope unknowing of this, as he realized that there was a lot he didn't know about her—like why she was helping him, for one thing. If this was about her ankle, she was going to an awful lot of trouble to repay him. What had she been doing in the forest, in the first place? Who would she have been looking for out there? He wanted to know the answers to these things. More than that, he wanted to know more about Hope herself.

Teri reached for the knob to open the door for her, when he paused and let his hand fall back at his side.

"…Hope?"

She looked up at him. "Yes?"

"Thank you… really… for helping me."

"Oh. Um." She smiled. "It's the least I can do to make it up to you for the… uh… ankle… thing."

"That's really nice of you." He gave her a grateful look. "I mean—really. You don't know how much this has helped me."

"I—I'm glad."

"You sure that going to school with me isn't a bit much, though?" he asked.

"No, I think it's fun! I really like it."

Before Teri could do it for her, Hope opened the door and stepped out.

"Well then, uh, see you tomorrow, Teri."

"You too."

She swung the door, about to close it, when she paused.

"…Teri?"

"Hm?"

She was looking away from him. Her voice was meek and lacking in its usual confidence. "I—I'm really sorry…."

He wasn't quite sure what she meant by that. This time, he wasn't that interested in knowing the answers. All he knew was that he really didn't like to see her so sad. Perhaps it was normal for him to feel that way, as he didn't normally like to see a friend of his down, either. But this was…. This was different. He didn't know what it was that made it so, but Teri felt quite a bit sad, too.

He snapped back to reality. "Oh. What? Uh, sorry for what, now?"

"I…." She glanced at him briefly, and then looked away again. She sighed. "Never mind."

The next thing Teri knew, he was looking at a closed door.

* * *

The next day, he was relieved to see that Hope looked a lot less down. In fact, she was happy. _Very_ happy.

"Well, what cheered you up?" he asked her as they headed off to the study.

"Oh…." She giggled, putting her fingers to her lips. "That's a secret….~"

…Maybe it was just the summer heat, but Hope was looking 75% brighter and more glittery to Teri.

Concerned for himself, he waited the next day to see if she looked the same. She did.

Throughout the day after while she tutored him, Teri tried to reason what it could have been that made her so much brighter. It was just the sun. Right? The sun was directly over the window of the study around noon, which was the time that Hope usually came to tutor him. That would have made sense.

Or maybe it was just that she was really charming….

Teri blinked. _Well that was a weird thought._ He was sure it wouldn't happen again.

Until it did.

_She's really cute when she smiles._

And then

_Wow are her eyes gorgeous. Such pretty green shades. I like the way they're shaped, too._

They just kept coming and coming. This was going to be a problem if it kept up. Teri was becoming way too distracted during his time being tutored by her.

Paying attention to mathematics were already a thing of the past. It wasn't that he became bored by them—granting that he wouldn't be surprised if he was. Teri actually took the effort to listen to what she was saying sometimes, and he still couldn't, even if he had been able to do so before.

"And then, you see, because the left side of the equation contains a cubed root as its base, you can just simplify it to have the same base as the other side, and multiply the logarithmic exponent by the exponent of three…. Uh… Teri?"

Teri wasn't really listening. He was just sort of staring at her while she talked.

Hope stopped talking and looked him in the eye, trying to figure out what was wrong. After waving a hand in front of him, he blinked a little and woke up.

"Oh? Hm? Uh, right. Logarithms. Haha. They're weird…."

"Teri, are you okay…?" she asked slowly.

He sat up now. "Huh?—Yeah, I'm fine." Twiddling his fingers. "Totally fine…."

She glanced down at her watch, and her expression turned to that of surprise.

"Oh my goodness! Our two hours are already over…. I'd better be going back home now. Sorry, Teri!" She began to shove her things back into her bag.

"What? Are you sure? You can totally stay a little longer if you wanted…."

"Yeah, but I told my parents I'm out doing other stuff…." She knit her eyebrows. "So I have to be back right away. I'm so sorry!"

"O-oh. That's okay too…."

Teri tried to hide his disappointment, but happily saw her off nevertheless. After she left, he shut the front door behind him with a sigh and leaned against it. His progress in school was dropping again. The tutoring wasn't working as well the last couple of days, and he didn't know why. …Although sadly, he had a bit of an idea.

Little had he known, he and Hope had been stalked….

His little sister ascended from the shadows behind him. "Teri."

"AAH! Girara. How long were you there?"

She had a grin of evil. And from that eight-year-old mouth came the tease that Teri always dreaded would one day come. "Teri's got a girlfriend.~"

"No! She's just tutoring me," Teri corrected her.

His sister just giggled. "Uh-uh. I saw the look on Teri's face. He likes her."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No I _don't_."

"Yes you _do_!"

"N—Fine! I do!"

Girara stepped back in shock as her brother shot her an angered expression. She hadn't actually been expecting that he would admit.

Teri just walked past her, dismissing the girl and her childish antics to pursue the relief of solitude, recovery, and heavy, _heavy_ contemplation.

* * *

*Spoilers: Never. Don't get your hopes up.


	7. What on Earth?

Silently entering through the door, creeping past everyone. Very inconspicuous.

In another room, she quietly swung the door open and entered. There were no windows. It was almost in complete darkness, save for the couple of beeping lights and glowing wires that illuminated the large objects, casting its curvy shadows onto the metallic walls that surrounded it. Other than that, this was her cave, a place that no one but she was allowed to enter into. It was dark and it was glorious; devoid of light, a seemingly hopeless and never-ending hallway that stretched out as long and as wide as she wished for whatever purpose she desired.

Its current purpose was to house a very peculiar object, one in almost a spherical shape, that stretched and came to a point by the front, adorned by a large curved window of hyperglass. Inside the mechanism were five separate seats, all empty.

She knew she must find them all—but where to start? They left no trace. Her cameras were already installed in the place where the ship had crashed, in the hope that they would return. So far, none of them had.

All she had to work off of were two separate samples of this strange, pulpy substance that must have derived from a type of plant not found on this world. Another sample she held in her other hand; the same kind of plant scrap was attached to a bit of torn cloth.

It had a very familiar scent to it….

She smiled. Perfect.

* * *

9/02

_It's official. I like Hope._

_I don't know how this happened and I don't know what to do now… but one thing I'm certain about is that whenever she's near me, and whenever I think about her, I always get this bright, warm feeling that I can't prevent._

It was odd—since admitting to himself, Teri felt a bit more at ease. Not around Hope, certainly; in fact, it was quite the opposite…. The list of ways he had begun to make a fool out of himself in front of her was already in the twenties.

It had only been a few days since the second quarter of eighth grade had started. Definitely not good.

Teri wasn't quite sure what came next. He had watched as others found their own romances, though never one to deliberately pursue something of the sort himself. This left him staring straight into a blank wall, so to speak, scratching his head and diverting his eyes. All he knew was that it was a very happy feeling to have—that unique connection with her—and as long as it didn't distract him from anything important, then it should serve him no trouble.

That, however, proved to be quite otherwise.

" 'Otherwise,' " spoke their English teacher as he gestured to the board with a pointing-stick, "is an adverb, conjunction, or adjective that is used to suggest alternative possibility under other circumstances, in other respects, or in another manner. The history of the word derives from…"

As the English teacher droned on, Teri's attention was rapt. Just… not quite for him. Instead he had been staring at Hope the whole period, as usual; a bad habit that he had happened to pick up. She was currently doodling some sort of design in her notebook, not listening nor interested in the lecture about the history of the word "otherwise." Had Teri been in his right mind, he might have questioned the reliability of his tutor.

Subconsciously, Teri let out a sigh with a sleepy look in his eyes. Oh how he was going to fail the next English test if he didn't start paying attention, and soon. But that really wasn't what was on his mind at the moment. Instead he took out his own notebook, not any of the ones for school, and laid it on his desk. Lately his notebook had been serving him as a place to write about—not relevant things—but his newfound obsession. He opened to his latest page and began to write.

_Watching Hope do nothing in particular is really great…. She has a little smile on her lips as she doodles. Her cheek is leaning against the back of her knuckles. What's she thinking about? I wish I could know. I wonder why she doesn't have any bangs. Though, now that I think about it, it must be because she realizes how pretty she is and wants to flaunt it to the world. I think that's a good reason to have. I hope she knows it. She probably does. Ah, so this is what love feels like. I could just go on about this forever. I think I will. I think that_

The bell rang.

Teri frowned and quickly shut his notebook so no one else had to see what he had been taking notes on, which wasn't actually the vital lecture his English teacher was giving.

During lunch, his two friends Yaoe and Sosuke watched him with concern while he completely spaced off. He wasn't even eating.

"Yup. He's gone from the world," said Yaoe as he sipped his juice.

"Dunno if he's ever coming back."

"Huh?" Teri turned toward them, finally snapping back. "What did you guys just say?"

Sosuke, a grave look on his face, placing his elbows on the table and clasped his hands by his chin. "We're worried. You've been changing, man."

"Changing into, uh… what?"

Sosuke pointed off somewhere toward a crowd of girls who were bird-watching a lone Merion with hearts in their eyes—he was only eating and looking out at nature contemplatively, nothing special. But the girls were clearly enraptured.

"I'm changing into a girl?"

Yaoe spit his juice out as he started to laugh.

"No." Sosuke's eyes were grim. "It's not a rare disease, Teri. We've all seen the symptoms before. You meet someone you like. At first it's just a little crush. And then, before you know it… you're completely absorbed in only one thing…"

"Not like he didn't have a one-track mind already," Yaoe noted.

"What!" Teri slapped his hands down on the table. "I—I don't know what you're talking about! You're acting like… like I… _like_ someone or something—"

"It's Hope," Yaoe and Sosuke both said in unison.

"WHAT? Ahahaha, nooo…." Teri looked off to the side and began to laugh nervously.

Yaoe looked down grievously. "Alas. The Teri we once knew is no longer of this world."

Sosuke gave him a comforting hug. They both needed it.

"Think we should tell him?"

They had Teri's attention now. "Huh? Tell me…. Tell me what?"

"About Hope."

"What about her…?" Teri's voice was slow, uncertain.

"Do you remember," said Yaoe, "what happened last year when we got that new girl Kara Kutta in the middle of the year?"

"Um… nope."

"_All_ the guys started liking her. Well. Most of them at least." Yaoe smirked a little.

Sosuke nudged his friend. "You were one of them."

"And this is important, why?" asked Teri.

"Don't you understand? Everyone _loves_ new students. They go gaga over them."

"What?" It finally registered with him. "So there are other guys who like Hope?"

"Mm-hm. Precisely." He started counting off his fingers. "Plus, she's petite, and smart, and has that unnatural hair color, which has _got_ to mean something."

"So? I've got an unnatural hair color, too. Doesn't mean it's anything special. Just means my mom has pink hair…."

"Maybe that means something, too."

Teri was silent for a moment. "This is a weird conversation. Let's talk about something else."

"Okay."

* * *

There were other guys who liked Hope. Teri hadn't considered that before.

It made sense, naturally. She was really cute… and funny… and really smart… and kind of mysterious, in a way….

He wondered if Hope liked any of them. She didn't seem like she was all that interested in anyone. This began to worry him. What happened if she did like someone? Unlike Teri, would she act on it?

_Oh, darn it, is that what you're supposed to do when you like someone? Act on it?_ he wondered. He supposed this would be a good thing to do…. It couldn't be all that hard, right? All that he had to do was walk up to her casually and ask if she wanted to hang out not as tutor and pupil. Easy as being a pie. Which was actually rather hard to do, if he had been thinking about it. But he wasn't, because thinking about being a pie wasn't really an important thought to have.

The glorious sound of the final bell, signifying freedom for all students, was his signal to move.

Teri began to sprint to Hope, ready to confront her and ask the easy question. The closer he got to her, the more he slowed down. He was having second thoughts. Suddenly he wanted to pull back and descend into the shadows, rethinking everything he was doing. What if he did it wrong? Or made a fool out of himself when he asked her? What if she said no, because she didn't like him in that sort of way? Did he even know what he was doing?

Every rational part of him screamed, _What are you thinking, Teri? There's no way you can do this._ He pushed that thought down and sped up, even though his face began to burn. _No, I can't turn back now!_ he told himself. He sped up.

"Hope, would you by any chance like to—"

Instead, he halted himself before her back that was facing him as he realized she was already speaking to someone else.

"Hi, Merion!" She had just clasped her bag shut.

The blondie turned to her in surprise as he closed his sketchbook. "Hm…? Oh, Hope. It's nice to see you."

"You wouldn't mind if I came to your house right now, would you?"

Teri's mouth dropped open.

"Hm? Why would that be, now?" he asked her.

Hope giggled innocently. "I think I'd like to get to know you a bit, that's all. I haven't really taken the opportunity to before, but will you give me a second chance?"

"Ah. This again." Merion scratched his head. "Well, I suppose it couldn't do any harm."

Just as Teri reached his arm out to her, they began walking off.

"Wait, Hope! _We_ could always get to know each other a bit mo—"

They were already too far away.

Teri dropped his arm at his side and gave a small growl. He clenched his hand into his fist. Of all people that had to interfere… it just _had_ to be Merion—like always, letting Teri know full well that he was still better. Now even Hope liked him. Naturally. Everyone seemed to. Teri had no words for how unfair this was.

"Omigosh, Teri's jealous of Hope!" he almost thought he heard some girls squeal behind him. "That's soooo cute!"

Confused at why he was hearing things, Teri reluctantly headed on home by himself.

* * *

The walk home was a lonely one.

For one thing, Hope wasn't there by his side this time, talking endlessly about how fun her day at school was and how she was so happy to be in school with everyone, giving off that lovely smile as hers.

For another thing, he knew where she was right now and who she was with…. He could feel his blood boiling.

Oh, and it was raining also and he did not have an umbrella. That was a thing.

Rather indifferently, Teri lifted his school bag over his head to keep the rain off of him. From out of the top, where one of the buttons had come off, his notebook slipped out and onto the rain-splattered sidewalk.

For the moment, Teri looked at the soaking booklet lethargically, wondering if it was worth it to pick it up. Eventually he decided it was, and he used his foot to kick it into the air so he could catch it with his hand. It was sopping wet. Honestly, he didn't really care at the moment.

Walking the next few blocks home seemed like the longest walk of his life. The rain got harder; he even thought he saw a bit of lightning flash every now and then. Usually, he loved the rain—especially when it was raining really hard like this—but today seemed extra wet. And not particularly in the good sort of way.

"I'm home," he called out to no one as he finally stepped inside the door. He slipped off his soaking shoes (after much struggling) and his socks, and put on a pair of indoor ones. His bag was too wet to get his homework out quite yet, so he didn't bother taking it up to his room. Plus, Hope wouldn't be there to tutor him, anyway, so what was the point really.

Sighing occasionally as he made his way up the stairs to his room, Teri waved his notebook about so all the water would fly off. A trail of water droplets followed him up the stairs. He entered his room and began to take off his shirt, contemplating what he should change into to be less wet. After a struggle with the wet clothing, he managed to get his shirt off and toss it, as well as the notebook, onto his bed. Maybe changing into drier clothes didn't really matter. The day couldn't get any worse, after all.

"_Ah_!"

Teri froze. He slowly turned his head toward the bed. "Did my shirt just say something…?"

He watched, in utter confusion, as the shirt on his bed writhed about as if it was coming to life. Something stuck out from underneath the shirt—a… blue… hand?

Finally, the hand whipped the shirt off and the creature took a breath. Blue skin, some sort of yellow hat, small stature…. It almost resembled a frog, in some way….

Teri let out a scream and jumped back.

"What…. _WHAT IS THAT?!_"


	8. The Notebook

Teri dashed out of the room. He clutched his hair anxiously, then dashed back in, locking the door behind him. If he wasn't so frantic, he probably would have been more careful about how much of a commotion he was making.

"Teri? What's going on up there?" he heard his mother shout from downstairs.

"Nothing, Mom!" he called back.

If he didn't do something, and soon, he felt like he was going to explode. What was this thing? What was it doing in his room? He took a breath, trying to calm himself.

Cautiously, he approached the creature. There would be no use in freaking out about it. He had to find out what it was.

Bending down, he looked the poor, terrified guy in the eye. "What are you?" He had to make sure that his voice was quiet enough for the creature to hear, though not loud enough to sound to his family like he was talking to himself alone in his room.

No response.

"Well? What are you?"

Still, nothing.

"You some kind of mutant creature?" The thing tried to dash away, but Teri grabbed it by its squishy head and held it up to his face. "Well? What are you? An alien?"

He dropped it back onto the bed. "No, what am I _thinking_! That's just dumb. Aliens aren't real!"

The alien scratched his head.

"Ah!" Teri smacked his fist into his palm. "Maybe it's some kind of foreign animal. Like a pet or something. Hey, are you an animal?"

It looked back at Teri with a dumfounded expression.

"I'll take that as a yes."

He went to his desk and picked up his cell phone, beginning to dial some numbers. Instantaneously, the creature darted up to him and clutched Teri's pant leg. He shook his head furiously, and started making rapid hand signals.

"Uh… is it normal for animals to shake their heads?" Teri wondered aloud. "Ah! I know. I'll ask Hope what this thing is. Maybe she'll know what to do."

Again with the rapid head-shaking. Reluctantly, Teri put down the cell phone.

"All right. I'm not gonna call her—but you _aren't allowed to leave this room_. You hear me?"

The creature gave him a salute and then headed toward the window, bouncing happily.

"Ah! What did I just say? Were you even _listening_?"

Teri ran up to the creature and grabbed it by its head. Of course, it probably didn't understand Japanese. There would be no way to communicate with it. He sat down on his bed and stared it in the eye, wondering what to do next. If he didn't get rid of it, and soon, things could get problematic for him. It might have been a dangerous creature, for all he knew. Or a really mutated animal.

"Oh god. I don't know what to do with you. I don't even have any idea what you are."

The creature blinked back at him.

"There's only one thing to do."

He got some rope. Suddenly, the creature looked terrified.

After tying him to a chair and bolting the windows shut, Teri brushed off his hands and looked at a job well done. The rest of the day he contributed to flipping out and examining all the possibilities of what the heck had just happened in his room.

* * *

Needless to say, school was… awkward the next day.

Teri was jittery. He didn't seem to be paying attention most of the time, but then, that had also become normal for him that past week. There was really only one thing on his mind at the moment: the creature he had found in his room, and what he was to do with it.

"Teri!" Someone poked him in the back.

Jolting, Teri turned around. It was just Hope.

"H-Hope…." He forced a smile.

Surprisingly, she bowed to him. "I'm _so so so so_ sorry!"

He scratched his head. "Sorry for what?"

"That I couldn't tutor you yesterday…." She tossed a guilty sort of look off to the side.

"Oh. That's okay." That was what he said, but what she didn't need know was the intense amount of jealousy that stirred within him.

"So… how'd things go with Merion?" he dared to ask. Better to keep his mind off that weird creature while at school. He couldn't let this trouble him the whole day. No—he had plenty of other things that could do that instead.

"Oh, with Merion?" She frowned suddenly. "Uh… not so good…. It turned out I was wrong."

"Wrong about what?"

"About Merion."

_So I guess that means she's not interested in him anymore,_ thought Teri. _…Yesss!_

"What about you? How were things for you yesterday?" Hope giggled. "Did you get any homework done?"

"Uh…. Y-yeah, I did some homework." He omitted the details of everything that came before that: like finding some weird creature in his room. And tying it up. And flipping out for an hour or two.

But that was mainly it.

"Well, let's be sure to get a _lot_ done today!" said Hope with a cheerful smile.

And Teri, he just sort of thought_ KLJSFDKJHSFKDJH WHYYY._

"Um! Actually." Teri took a step back, and felt behind him until he could feel a wall. He moved up against that. "I have. Uh. Other stuff to do today." _Like find out what the heck that creature is in my room and HOW ON EARTH IT EVEN GOT HERE for one thing._ "Like—like—hang out with Merion myself!"

"What?" Hope looked confused.

"Uh… sure. That's right."

"But—but—"

A few other girls passing the two of them caught wind of this and began to squeal. "It's finally happening!" they shouted.

Hope shot them a deadly glare. The girls walked faster.

"So—um—if you'll kindly excuse me…" Teri continued avoiding Hope along the wall. "…I'll just be taking my leave now—_Oof_!"

He had bumped into something. Was somebody else using this wall to avoid someone?

No, it was just a Merion.

Speaking of walls, Teri started banging his head against one just then.

"I didn't know we were spending time together today, Teri." Merion was smirking; one of his eyebrows was raised in a quizzical fashion. Questioning Teri. Testing him.

"Uh… uh…" _How do I get out of this?_

"So, what are we going to be doing? Sparring?"

Teri had a nervous smile. "Y-you know I don't spar, Merion…."

"Well, what better time than today to learn?" He raised an eyebrow, his blond hair falling delicately over his right eye, since most of his hair was all swept to one side. Teri desperately sought for a way to get out of this.

Merion was so blond, and his eyes were so blue. They were so blue that sometimes they scared Teri because eyes weren't supposed to be that blue. Then again, like the thirteen-year-old with pink hair was one to talk. Besides, he had seen different colored eyes on people before. Like one time he met someone with no eyes. That was a pretty weird experience.

"Uh, you listening, Teri?"

"I don't think he's listening…" said Hope skeptically.

"What? I'm listening." _Now_, he added in his mind. "Fine, Merion. I _will_ spar with you." He looked at him challengingly in the blue eyes. They stung him somewhere inside.

Merion smirked. "That's what I thought. Meet me behind the Hojo Dojo at 3:30 after school."

Teri gave him a stubborn yet resolute nod, and began to walk off.

From behind him Hope called, "I'll root for you, Teri!"

Teri grinned and felt his cheeks heat up. Merion, however, frowned.

* * *

For as long as he could remember, Teri never had been really good with directions. Before finding where that place was that Merion wanted him to meet at, he first had to find out what the heck a Hojo Dojo was. Then, he had to decide if it was worth it to go actually carry out his excuse, or if he'd rather do more important things, like actually find out what that creature was in his room.

But—no! One never stood up their rival. That would be a sign of defeat, which was simply something Teri couldn't do.

Grudgingly, he stuck to his word and met Merion in their decided meeting spot after school… although anxiety nudged at the back of his head. He couldn't get his mind off the creature.

Merion was in his karate gear, already warming up when he turned to see Teri. "Ah, so you did come."

"What? You thought I'd stand you up?" he asked him.

"I won't deny that the thought crossed my mind once or twice."

Teri frowned. "All right. How do we do this, then?"

"Well." Merion tossed him something white, which Teri caught in his hands. "First you've gotta suit up. Can't have you sparring in your school clothes, can we?"

He looked at the karate clothes in his hands that Merion had tossed him. Traditional white cloths. He looked at Merion's attire. Black belt. It figured. Teri wondered if he would be able to beat him.

After Teri changed, they soon found out that the answer was an obvious no. In fact, it had only been a few minutes until Merion won the informal sparring match. Teri knew just the basics; the blocks, the hits, and the kicks, and what regions to strike at which ones to not. Although he had the strength, certainly, he was still no match for Merion, who had been training since he was a kid, presumably.

Merion put his hands on his knees, and Teri wondered if he was catching his breath. He wasn't. He was laughing at him.

Teri frowned. "Yeah? So you won. No surprise there."

"Still funny, though." He grabbed his abdomen, hooting with laughter.

"Yeah, well, I'm going to go out and change, 'cause I've kind of got other stuff to worry about at the moment." Teri headed into the back room of the Hojo Dojo just as Merion finally started breathing again. Even though he wasn't even close to being _on par_ with Merion's karate skills, he still felt slightly humiliated.

"Hey!" Merion called to him as he lay down on a bench, his head at the sky.

Teri gave him a slightly muffled shout back from inside the changing room.

"You can always start learning if you wanted. Then we could _actually_ spar sometime."

He came out of the changing room now, and tossed the uniform back to Merion, who reached his arm lazily in the air to catch it. "Sorry, but karate really isn't my forte."

"That's too bad, then."

"Guess so."

Teri headed toward the back entrance from the building, now back in his school clothes. Merion was looking at him patiently, awaiting for one of them to say something. There was only an awkward silence. Teri didn't normally talk to Merion if he could help it. Before he finally did speak, he paused on the first word, testing it out. "What…. What did Hope come to you for yesterday?"

"Ah, not much," Merion said. "Just a few questions. I couldn't help with any of them, though, so she had to leave."

"Mm-hm…." Teri looked at him skeptically, as though he didn't believe him.

"What?" Merion peered upside-down at him from the bench. "That's what happened."

They both stared at each other for a moment, until Merion grinned as he made the connection.

"Ahh, I see. You like her, don't you."

"What? I—no, I don't!"

"That's a shame." He "tsked."

"Why… why is it a…? Wait…." Teri's eyebrows lowered. "Oh geez…. Don't tell me _you_…"

He trailed off, relieved that Hope didn't like _him_, but at the same time, not so relieved from what Merion was implying. It couldn't be. Could it? No. Merion liking Hope. Even though it would totally make sense… because she was cute. And smart. And really amazing. But if it _was_ true… not good for Teri. He didn't need something else to compete with Merion for.

"Well, it's not every day that I see a girl who isn't _totally uninterested in me_."

_Oh,_ thought Teri disappointedly. His eyes narrowed as he frowned internally. "Now you're just gloating."

"I wish I was! You know how annoying it is? That I can hardly ever be alone at school?" Merion gave him a serious look. "And you know how gross it is that more than _half_ of those girls secretly want us to start making out?"

For a second, there was a hint of something in Merion's toxically blue eyes, as if he wasn't letting on the entire reason. Teri had to dismiss it when what Merion had said about half the girls in the school finally registered with him.

"Wait… what?"

"Uh-huh. That's my reaction."

"I'm… not sure if I should be more disgusted that you like Hope or that most the girls in our school want us to make out…."

For just one moment, they both stopped competing with each other right then just to look each other in the eyes and share the same amount of revulsion.

"Please excuse me a moment. I've got to make a mental note to myself to avoid most the girls in our school now," Teri said as he went to his school bag. He opened it to search for his notebook. It was not there.

_That's odd; where could it have…_ His eyes widened.

The notebook. The bed. Home. Creature. It all hit him at once.

He accidentally left his notebook at home with an unknown creature who may or may not still have been tied up when _most of the pages in that particular notebook were all about how a whopping huge crush on some girl._

His face turned bright red.

"Going now!" Teri grabbed his book bag and zipped out of there at high speed.

Merion just blinked and scratched his head.

* * *

Teri had never run home faster than he had that day. Or slammed the doors harder as he raced upstairs at full speed.

"ALL RIGHT, WHERE IS IT?!" he demanded as he locked the door to his room. He didn't even care anymore that his family might have heard him shouting to no one in particular.

The creature was casually laying on the ground on his belly, reading through Teri's latest notebook page by page.

Teri's eye twitched. The creature hadn't even noticed him enter the room. And how on earth had he gotten himself untied?!

Instead of yelling at the creature again, Teri quietly squatted in front of him and smiled. "May I have that back now? That's rather personal." His lips said _please_; his eyes said _I'll kill you._

Finally seeing a pair of knees in front of him, the creature's eyes slowly scanned upward. He jumped back against Teri's bed in surprise.

"Now, I'll be taking this—"

Teri reached for the notebook, but the creature dove for it instead. He picked up a pen from off the ground and—Teri could just watch in horror—began to write rapidly. In _his_ notebook.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

The creature shoved the notebook in his face.

"Ah—"

Though a bit confused, he took the booklet and read the message in barely legible handwriting.

_Please kind and generous Pekoponian don't turn me in to the men in black I've heard all about them and they're really dangerous!_

Teri looked down at him. "Men in what, now? Wait… what did you just call me?"

The creature reached his hands up and jumped a little. He must have been trying to communicate that he wanted the notebook.

Reluctantly, Teri handed it back to him and he began to write more.

_I am an officer of the space invasion force special advance team of the 58th planet of the Gamma storm cloud system, a place called Keron._

He showed the message once more to Teri.

Who just blinked.

"So… you ARE a frog?"

The frog-creature did not respond. Teri realized the creature must not understand what he was speaking, but could apparently read just fine, so he wrote down his response.

_Are you a frog, then?_

The response:

_No, we're referred to as Keronians, actually. What a curious creature you are to ask such ignorant questions!_

Teri frowned at him, and then wrote,_Say that one more time, please?_

_Okay. What a curious creature you are to_

He snatched the pen out of his hand.

_Sarcasm._

_Oh. We have that on my planet, too._

_Your what?_ Teri wrote.

_Well, my planet._

For a moment, he was frozen in shock.

_You're an ALIEN?_

_You're really fast on the uptake!_ He made a happy expression and wrote something underneath that. _See! I can use sarcasm, too!_

_No, no. Just stop it already. Stop it already and start over from the beginning. I want to know why the heck aliens exist._

_The same reason as to why gravity's a thing, I guess,_ the alien creature—the "Keronian"—wrote with a shrug. _They just do. I mean, you're an alien to me._

_Why don't… _Teri was writing now with a trembling hand. …_you just start over from the beginning._

_Okay._ The Keronian flipped over to the next blank sheet of paper. _My name is Latata._

* * *

**A/N: Phfft Hojo Dojo XD**

**I'm sorry I just love that name to death.**


	9. Alien Invaders

**A/N: Do you smell that? It's exposition and a whole lot of italics. Apologies in advance.**

* * *

Thousands of millions of thoughts boggled Teri's mind, all because of this one little Keronian. Suddenly everything he thought he knew was squished down and crushed until it wasn't anything anymore.

No, he _didn't_ know anything. He didn't know that aliens were actually real. He'd always thought that was a joke. Nor did he ever consider before the threat of actual alien invaders coming to Earth and, well, er… invading.

_My name is Latata._ That was how it began. Latata the Keronian. The _alien_. Who was in his room. Teri had no idea how any of this happened, but it did, and it was happening still—and he wanted to know everything about it.

Latata came from a planet called "Keron." Keron, as Latata described, was a glorious planet with much invasion skill to bolster, one of the acclaimed invasion planets in all the galaxies. They had not yet, however, conquered one particular planet on their list, a certain planet with much competition from other alien forces. For many millennia, Keron had sent its forces out to claim the planet. Each time, the invasion squads failed, or were killed, or vanished mysteriously, or something along those lines. This planet was Earth—or as Latata referred to it as, "Pekopon."

_And you,_ wrote Latata as he pointed at Teri, _are called a "Pekoponian."_

_Not Pekoponian. Human. And my name is Teri,_ he corrected him. _Teri Hinata._

_I like the name Pekoponian better. It describes your barbaric race so well. You are stunned out of your mind that you are not the only planet with living species in this universe, I presume? Well, if I had the equipment, I would erase your memories of this meeting since I'm just that generous. Pekoponians usually can't handle the knowledge of aliens, after all._

"I don't understand a word you're writing," said Teri as he scratched his head and frowned.

Latata smiled. _Great! It looks like you're beginning to understand. Now let me tell you all about my wonderful home planet._

He went on to describe more about Keron, like his favorite places, his favorite restaurants, his favorite food. He talked a bit about all the great TV shows that he had seen, and—

Teri wrote something down. _Please get to the point._

_Oh, right. OH! RIGHT! That reminds me._

_Does it, now?_

Latata stood up and looked him urgently in the eye. He jumped onto Teri's bed and peered out the window.

"What're you looking for, little guy…?"

Latata bounced back down and hopped onto his belly. He wrote the next message. _I should really be heading back to my platoon, now, so we can invade._

"He has a whole platoon?" Teri frowned. _I don't think that's going to happen_.

Latata looked up at him, confused. _Why not?_

_Any guesses?_

_Is it because I'm using your notebook to communicate?_

Teri just laughed.

_Who is "Hope," by the way?_

He stopped laughing. _So tell me more about your invasion thingy._

_Okay. Well, our initial strategy is to_—Latata scratched the previous sentence out. _Why am I telling you all this?_

_Because you're being dumb._

_No I'm not. You're the dumb one. You have know idea how easy it was to sneak into your poorly-guarded Pekoponian residence. I didn't even have to try!_

Latata paused.

_Hold on a minute. I thought that they said Pekoponians WOULDN'T be able to see through our anti-barriers!_

_Your what, now?_ Teri asked.

_Anti-barriers._ Latata pointed to the insignia on his hat, which was a music symbol. He picked up the pen again. _These little badges help turn us invisible to the Pekoponian eye. Or at least, they were SUPPOSED to._ He gave it a twist. Nothing happened. _Maybe mine's just broken. Maybe that's it._

_It turns you invisible?_ Teri wrote. _I'd say that's pretty cool, if you hadn't told me you were an alien invader from outer space and all._

_Thank you!_ wrote Latata. _Oh, it's also an anti-environmental barrier, and serves as an automatic translator. That's why I can understand your language!_

"Would've helped if they added a function for better handwriting," Teri muttered under his breath as he squinted at Latata's scribbly messages.

_Unfortunately, it only works for spoken languages, so I guess there's no hope of using Keronian Sign Language…._

Teri lowered his eyebrows a bit, then wrote, _Keronian Sign Language?_

_Right._ Latata paused a moment to stretch his fingers. _I'm deaf._

"Oh." That made a lot more sense, now. Like why Latata hadn't responded whenever Teri said anything. One thing he had never pictured was meeting an alien invader, let alone an alien. He had never considered that alien species could be deaf, too….

_I'm sorry._

_Why are you acting sympathetic?_ Latata looked genuinely confused. _Nobody told me Pekoponians could be sympathetic._

_Sorry about that, too._ Teri scratched the back of his neck. A part of him felt sorry for the guy, although he told himself not to let that bother him. This guy _was_ an invader, after all. _So, how did you get into my room, anyway?_

_Scouting and investigation mission._

_Did it have to be MY room?_

_Not just your room. Geez, don't be so egotistical. I've ventured other places this past week, too. Besides, how was I supposed to care?_

_I really don't like the way you said that, Latata._

_Anyway, that's what my platoon assigned me to do. They also told me not to get into any trouble. I guess I blew that one out the window._

_Yeah, no kidding. Well, is there any way to contact them? You know, to tell them you're not coming back?_

_What do you mean?_ asked Latata. _Of course I'll be going back._

Teri just shook his head—one bit of body language that the blue Keronian could easily understand.

_Well, what are you going to do to stop me, Pekoponian?_

_Probably something to do with firearms._

_WHY DO REGULAR PEKOPONIANS HAVE FIREARMS? NOBODY TOLD ME THESE THINGS!_

_Please don't write in caps, Latata. You're taking up way too much space in my notebook. And I actually need this notebook for stuff._ _Like school._

_Ah! I have heard of this Pekoponian "school." I, however, attended training school as a tadpole, which was a grueling and demanding experience. The days back then were dark and stormy, although admittedly I really like that weather, but that's just the way I remember it._

Teri craned his neck slightly. It looked like whatever Latata was writing so much about, it must have been really important.

_On the first day of every school week we were made to go through rigorous exercises to keep us, just young Keronians, promisingly in shape, for fear that we had slacked off too much during the weekends. The second day of every week was no better. At lunch they only served us buns that they said had sweet filling, but they actually had spicy filling! It got me every time. Getting scorched tongues was one of the leading factors for all my visits to the training school nurse. She was this really old and ugly had who had grey skin and sagging eyes and a really raspy voice, and_—

_I don't really care._ It didn't take him long to get bored, once he saw what the guy was writing.

Latata frowned. _I'm stuck here, aren't I?_

_Yes._

_And with you?_

_Yes._

_Joy._

_You don't seem to be looking forward to it_, Teri wrote.

_That's because I'm not, Pekoponian._

_Then use some of your alien technology to zip you out of here, why don't you._ He wasn't looking forward to it, much, himself. He had his own life to live, his own things to do. He didn't know how much harboring an alien in secret would flip things around… though it was better than letting this potential invader run around loose.

_I'm not a tech officer! I'm a combat expert! I'm barely equipped with any weapons at all!_

_Pity. I guess you'll just be staying here then. As my_—Teri smirked.—_prisoner._

Latata did not at all seem to like this news. _But my platoon! I need to return to them!_

_Sorry, man._

_They must miss me so much right now…. I bet they're all worried._

_I'm sure you're the only thing on their minds right now._

_You think? Wow, Pekoponians really are nicer than I expected._

_Sarcasm, Latata. Sarcasm._

_Oh._ _Are you sure? Because I'm the first one they sent out when our space ship crashed. "Go and investigate something somewhere," the Senior Private told me. Those were the exact words that she signed to me._

_Your ship crashed?_

_Yeah!_ Latata began to write excitedly. _We were just zooming smoothly through space at hyperspeed… when OUT OF NOWHERE, there was this meteor! It smacked right into us! and before we knew it, most of our systems failed and we went careening into the horsey-thing._

_Horsey-thing?_

_Yeah, you know. The big green horsey-thing that turned into a bunch of buildings and then a bunch of trees the closer and closer you got to it._

_I think you mean Japan, Latata. Japan's a country. It's where we are now._

_Oh. …It is?_

_Yes._

_You know,_ Teri wrote, halfway musing to himself, _for an alien invader, you really aren't all that scary._ In fact, Latata's colors reminded Teri of the color of flowers—his blue skin; his yellow hat. There was a more certain kind of flower that it reminded him of, to be exact. What was that flower's name, now…. Something-me-not or… something like that.

_What? I am too scary. I can strike terror in the hearts of children. I can prove it, you know. Just find me a child._

_Honestly, the only other child in this house besides you is my little sister and she'd probably laugh at whatever attempt you made to scare her._

_Really? That's a pity that_—Latata started a new sentence. _Wait, did you just call me a child?_

_Ah. So you've figured out._

_I am SO not a child! Do you see this blue face? Do you see this smooth butt? I am an adult! I'm the fourth-oldest in my platoon!_

Teri couldn't help but giggle. _That's still pretty young, you know._

_Well, I'm not that young! Pulala's still younger than me._

_Who is Pulala?_

_She's the new recruit. She doesn't know ANYTHING. All she does is derp around all day and do nothing whatsoever. But she has guns and stuff, too, so I guess you might like her._

_I guess. Except the being-an-alien-invader part. What about the rest of your platoon?_ Teri asked. _What are they like?_

_Well._ Latata thought. _There's Senior Private Dokiki. She's the only one that I can actually talk to, since she knows Keronian Sign Language. It's programmed into her. She's a robot, actually. They told us this, but they sure didn't tell her. So she doesn't know, but they made her a tech officer anyway. All she ever does is complain about her job, though._

_You're kidding me. She's a ROBOT?_

_Yes. Oh, and then there's Xuyiyi. Haha, am I glad I can't talk, because not a single one of us could ever pronounce his name. But he's really weird-looking and kind of foreign._

_A foreign alien?_ Teri didn't look like he believed it.

_Yeah. He's really distant and doesn't like to talk to any of us, expect for our captain, who he TOTALLY has the hots for. But he's the medic and he heals stuff. Except my hearing. He could heal a lot of things but he couldn't heal my hearing. I don't really like him._

_Well, you've sure got some personal bias going on there…._

_Give me a second here._ Latata put down the pen so he could stretch his fingers again, grunting a little. _Wow, writing a lot sure is tiring. How do you do it so much? I mean, your notebook is practically filled to the brim!_

_It takes practice._

_So anyway… who am I forgetting? Right, duh! Our leader. He's Staff Sergeant Zurere. He's the scariest Keronian I've ever met, let me tell you. One time, I wasn't paying attention, so he snuck up behind me, took out his sword, put it very gently against my neck, and in the creepiest voice imaginable, he was like—_

Teri yawned.

_So anyway,_ Latata continued, _he's scary and that's a thing. They say that he used to be a pirate!_

_You guys have pirates in space?_

_Yeah. They're called space pirates, DUH._

_Oh. Should I have known that?_

_Obviously. Geez, you Pekoponians sure are ignorant._ Latata gave Teri a look of disapproval. _But I guess you're taking this all pretty well._

_That's what you think. This is all pretty shocking. I'm pretty sure after we stop writing, I'm going to go step outside for a little while and RETHINK MY ENTIRE LIFE. But at least you're not a very threatening alien or anything. Other than that, trust me, I'm still shaking._

_Is that why your handwriting is so bad?_

_Correct. Now, what's your excuse?_

_What? I have bad handwriting?_

_Yes, Latata…. Yes, you do._

_Is it bad enough that you'll let me go?_

_No._ At this, Teri just laughed.

He had a feeling that this was going to be difficult. At least Latata wouldn't be that loud of a prisoner—that was a plus.

* * *

Taking care of the Keronian was harder than Teri had imagined. It was one thing just knowing that he was an alien. It was another thing entirely keeping the secret from his parents, while at the same time having to sneak up food to him and sneak him out of the room occasionally to use the restroom, since Latata's anti-barrier was broken and getting spotted by Teri's parents was a constant risk. It was interesting having the "you-know-Teri-if-you're-secretly-keeping-a-wounded-animal-from-us-that's-all-right-you-just-need-to-tell-us" talk with his parents. In fact, he'd been getting a lot of interesting talks from them lately.

But if his parents thought he was going to sit down with them and tell them that aliens existed, and was in fact _keeping_ an alien invader in his room, then they had some major re-thinking to do.

In the beginning, one thing he was sure to be thankful for was Latata's deafness, since he had thought that that meant the guy would be silent. It didn't. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Because Latata could not hear, he was completely unaware when he was making random sounds out of nowhere—resulting in Teri giving him a written explanation of what he was doing, and why that was not okay.

And then there were the nights, in which Latata let the world know his greatest skill of all… snoring. Teri used up so much money purchasing the latest earplug technology just to drown those snores out. Another interesting talk with his parents ensued afterward.

Sometimes Teri caught Latata doing this weird thing where he starting humming out of nowhere. After the first couple of times seeing him do this, Teri saw that it was deliberate. Latata's humming was awful-sounding and off-key, and Teri had his hands over his ears for quite a while afterward, but couldn't help but wonder why he did that… why he wanted to hum, even when he couldn't hear himself. It was probably just Latata being Latata and making annoying sounds.

Was the guy irritating? Yes. Was Teri completely weirded out that this was a sign aliens existed? Completely. He was still shocked and confused, though he hid it well from the blue Keronian. Still, he knew that Latata had to stay under his jurisdiction, even if he didn't take him quite seriously, because who knew what could happen if he ever joined up with his platoon.

Was the rest of his platoon any more dangerous, though?—that was the question. Teri seriously doubted it, although even he knew that this might turn into a threat if it wasn't looked into. There was only one thing to do, in that case. He needed to use Latata to find the rest of the aliens.


	10. The Junior Pekopon Protection League

**A/N: Today while I was outside, I spotted tiny blue flowers everywhere. It's definitely forget-me-not season. Unfortunately, that means it's also skunk cabbage season. Quite a pretty flower but... so gross-smelling.**

**Well, that's my pointless info for you today.**

* * *

First few days of keeping an alien in secret, and Teri was already sick of it.

If he had once thought younger siblings could be annoying, he realized now that they were little angels compared to what Latata was. For someone who could not hear, that Keronian was extremely loud at everything he did. Teri had to make a huge effort just to get him to shut up.

It didn't help that Latata was a curious little thing, either. He was only curious enough to get into trouble, as it seemed—like seeing how a primitive Pekoponian TV worked by turning it on (at full volume)—or taking frequent peeks through Teri's personal notebook to keep himself updated on Teri's odd and embarrassing young love life with his tutor—or deciding that he would see how sufficient his Pekoponian captor was in Pekoponian "Junior High," by situating himself in Teri's backpack, little to the boy's knowledge, and playing stowaway. The short-term results of this test were no, not very sufficient, hence the need for a tutor. The long-term results were many silent fights between the two of them.

It was hard enough keeping anyone from seeing Latata, like Teri's family, or his school, and especially Hope. Luckily, after a long and ambiguous explanation to her, he managed to get her to agree to meet him after school _at_ the school for tutoring, instead of over at his house. (Much thanks to Latata for Teri making a fool out of himself in front of her 99% more by acting weird to keep Latata's secret.) Dealing with the alien himself was a totally different thing.

One day—it was a Saturday, and the days were just beginning to get a little colder—Teri came up to Latata and plopped a bag down in front of his face.

"All right, Latata. Today's the day you've been waiting for—we're gonna look for the rest of your platoon for you," he said to him.

Latata stared blankly into his face.

"Oh. Right." Teri took out a notebook—one separate from his personal one—this green one was exclusively for conversing with Latata, since Teri couldn't speak any Keronian Sign Language and Latata was deaf. He wrote down the day's plan, then held it in front of Latata's face.

The blue Keronian rubbed his chin as he read the message, grinned with excitement, and then scribbled out a response underneath. _You're not kidding me? Frog have mercy! This is superb! Now I'll finally get out of this house! No more secrecy, no more hiding from your family, no enduring your annoyance, no more having to clean your room for you, no more eating that awful food you feed me, no more having to sleep in your closet, no more using your backpack for combat practice, no more accidentally reading your long, long paragraphs in your notebook about that Hope person you've always been talking about, no more_—

Teri took the notebook out of his hands suddenly and snapped it shut, giving him a stern look in the eye. While Latata shivered, he tossed the notebook and pen to him, then gathered up his bag and tied it shut.

Briefly, he wondered if he should feel bad for lying to Latata. The guy just wanted to find where the rest of his platoon went, that was all. But Teri knew that invading the planet wasn't in the least bit okay, and that was something that Latata ought to learn—even if Teri had to teach him the hard way, by pretending that he was going to help him look for his platoon when he was ACTUALLY using Latata to… look for his platoon.

The only twist—what Latata _didn't_ know—was that in the bag Teri had just tied shut were all the alien-unfriendly essentials to capturing the next Keronian he found. Nets. Rope. Large sheets of cloth. Tranquilizers. Pepper spray. Firearms. He was actually rather surprised about all the things he happened to find in the storage room under the stairs, as well as in the fridge.

"And you, Latata"—In front of the Keronian he dropped another sack.—"are going to be riding in _here_."

Before explaining in written words, Teri picked up Latata and placed him into the burlap sack, which he slung over his shoulder. As Latata popped his head out from the sack, Teri grabbed the green notebook to explain to him the vitality of keeping low.

_Remember. Your invisibility badge-thing is broken, right? That's how I was able to see you,_ he wrote. _You want to make sure that no one else does, though._

_Why not?_ Latata wrote as a response.

_If other humans saw an alien, they'd go into a panic._

_That's what we want, though._

_No. No, it is not. That's not what I want. And haven't I been the one to give you a place to stay this last week? So you've got to do everything that I say._

_How old are you, Pekoponian?_ asked Latata.

_Thirteen, why?_

_You act like such a child._

_You're the one who acts like a child, Latata. Now get back in the sack and get ready to catch your notebook because I'm tossing it in with you._

Satisfyingly, Latata ducked his head back into the sack. Teri popped the notebook in and fastened it closed before heading to the front door with the other bag in his hand and putting his shoes on.

"I'm heading out!" he called.

Somewhere in another room, his mother called back. "Why?"

"Nature walk, Mom. I'll be back sometime around noon or so; no worries!"

He was just about to head out the door when the certain gaze of a blonde eight-year-old caught him in his tracks.

"Girara." He looked at his sister. "Need something?"

She was staring up at him, her arms crossed over her chest. "I know that you're hiding something, Teri."

Teri gave an inconspicuous look off to the side and slowly opened the door.

Girara stepped forward. "You have to show me what you're hiding!"

Her brother was already gone from the house, the door shutting swiftly behind him.

* * *

"Urg." Girara pouted and stomped her foot down. Why did her brother have to be so disagreeable with her?

Well—at least he couldn't keep _everything_ from her. He thought he was all that—but he wasn't. As much as it would shock him to believe it, Girara had a secret of her own—one that her brother Teri couldn't ever hope to compare to.

She grinned devilishly.

After telling her mom that she was going out to play, as well, and after putting a jacket on, Girara headed out on her own. The route she took was a familiar one to her—all the way down the block, take a right, head down the next street, mosey in between those two buildings, dash across the sidewalk, enter the trees, look for the one with the funny knot in the center, give it a twist, push on the door that appears, and step right inside to her own secret hideout.

She entered the room and shut the door behind her, smiling a bit brighter, as was usual, when her favorite place to be came into view. The room was much larger on the inside than the trunk of the tree should have been, much thanks to alien technology that assisted with that. From the ceiling dangled assorted lights and whatnot to decorate the room; on the walls, pictures and posters were on display, as well as news clippings or shots of certain important events. In the corner was a shelf stashed with weaponry, both modern and traditional. At the front of their hideout, Girara spotted two of her friends, who she bounded up to.

"Hey, Oblivion! Whatcha doin'…." She poked over their shoulders to see a bright screen that showed a large open space of crater on the ground, completely surrounded by broken trees.

"The trajectory of the falling spacecraft points to this location as its landing spot, and the environment certainly points to that as well, though my satellite photographs don't show any sort of ship here…."

"I… don't really get it, but cool!" Girara put in. "Looks like something crashed there."

"That's what happened, actually." The boy in front of the screen, a kid her age, turned to Girara. "You just came here, but I was telling Neroko about it."

"It's probably aliens again!" Neroko chirped as she turned to Girara excitedly. In doing this, she accidentally whacked Oblivion with her pigtails.

"Ow! Neroko, that hurt…." He rubbed his sore cheek.

"Sorry!" She turned back to him to apologize, whacking him yet again. "Ah! Sorry!"

Girara giggled.

"Um… so…" Neroko pointed her finger at the blonde. "…what's new with you, Girara! Speaking of stuff to talk about, let's talk about summer camp that you totally missed out on!"

Girara groaned, a bit irritated, and frowned at her.

"It was _so_ fun! You totally should have come!"

"I was sick," she insisted. "Daddy wouldn't let me. And it was a really bad sickness, too. I was coughing and sneezing so much!"

"Welcome to my world every single day," said Oblivion as he blew his nose on a tissue.

"Ohhh, is _that_ why you sound so stuffed up and groggy," said Neroko.

Girara put her finger to her chin. "Maybe… _I_ caught what _you_ had last week."

"Shh… don't tell Kohizou that you got sick. Or else he's gonna wig out."

"Eh?" Girara looked around. "Where is Kohizou, anyway?"

"Probably saving a puppy, as usual or something," came Oblivion's monotonous voice between them.

"Nah, I'm sure he isn't," said Neroko dismissively.

From behind them, something swooped down from the shadows.

"Hey, guys! Am I late?"

The boy entered the light and took off the mask that covered the skin around his soft, blue eyes. He gave his short, black hair a toss to fix it up since he was too lazy to use his hands to do so. To the others, it was a stunningly perfect hair-flip.

"Kohizou!" Neroko dashed behind him and jumped onto his back, earning a terrified yelp from the boy as he fell helplessly to the ground.

"Ahh! Don't kill him just yet!" Oblivion protested. His tone was unexcited, though he wasn't even looking at Kohizou.

"That's a not very nice thing to say," said Girara critically. "So where were you, Kohizou?"

"Well." Kohizou stood up (after finally wrestling Neroko off of him) with a proud smile. "I was saving a puppy, as usual."

Facepalmage ensued amongst the other three.

"So, guys, what's the problem today?"

They all turned to Oblivion, who was more up-to-date on these sorts of things.

"Well… uh… no problem, really." He gestured to the screen behind him. "We just found out that some more aliens are on Pekopon now, that's all."

"Oh, yeah." Kohizou nodded. "I knew that."

"What should we do?" asked Girara.

"Probably nothing." Oblivion pushed up his glasses as they slid down his nose from having looked downward. "If they're invaders, the Pekopon Protection League can easily take care of it. No threat there."

"They're invaders? What? No! But Yutoto's got to invade first!" Neroko protested.

"I said _if_ they are invaders, Neroko," he reminded her. "Besides, we have no idea of the whereabouts of the new visitors at the moment. Nor where their spaceship even went. Obviously they aren't just using their anti-barrier on the ship, or else we'd be able to see it."

"I think we should find them instead," said Girara.

Kohizou turned to her. "You really think so?"

She nodded, clutching her hand at her chest. "I don't think that we should leave this up to the Pekopon Protection League."

"Yeah, they're stealing all the glory," Neroko added.

"Um… the PPL is rather experienced in this field…."

"I think we should take care of this ourselves. As a Junior Pekopon Protection League, we need to do more stuff with aliens, too." Girara reached into her pocket and took out a badge, her own copy of the ones they had all made together a while back. "Right?"

There were frowns in the room.

"Nng, but I can't always be here…."

"Yeah, and how can I protect the planet _and_ help Yutoto invade?"

Kohizou was the only one who smiled at her idea. "I think that's a great idea, Girara! We should protect the planet by taking things into our own hands."

"Hah! See? _Kohizou_'s with me on this."

"Which is why I would like to tell you all something right now." Kohizou made a gesture with his hand, gathering the four of them into a small huddle. He began to whisper.

"Eh? Already?" Girara gasped.

"Can I come along?" asked Neroko. "I'm just saying, as an alien myself I could probably talk to him or someth—"

Kohizou gave her a hard glare. "No. No, you cannot, Neroko. Remember the last time you got me to bring you along to one of these things?"

"Oh yeah…." She thought back to all the police reports that were made.

"I don't know, your idea sounds kind of risky…."

"Well, not to me it doesn't, but anyway, we'll have to see how it goes," said Kohizou. They did have to admit that he looked rather confident.

"Wow, I bet you're gonna be really cool!" Girara told him, earning her a frown from her other male friend.

"Hehe…." Kohizou scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well… not as cool as some people fighting aliens. Your brother namely."

Girara made a grunt and sat down against a wall. "I dunno, Kohizou…. Teri's not been very cool lately."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"He's been acting weird. Really weird."

"Girara, your brother's _always_ acted weird," Oblivion pointed out. "I mean, when I came over to your house last week he barely even recognized me."

Girara brought her knees up to her chest. "Yeah… he's no fun anymore. Half the time I don't even know what he's talking about."

"Kind of like with Neroko," Kohizou realized.

"What? I hate you, Kohizou!"

"Ahh! Don't hit me!"

She charged after him anyway.

"Maybe you just need to talk to him or something," suggested Oblivion.

Girara looked up at him. "You think I should? What if he doesn't wanna talk to me?"

"I dunno. Give him puppy dog eyes. Ought to work."

"How do I do that? Can you tell me please?" she asked him with puppy dog eyes.

He sweat-dropped. "I… think you've got nothing to worry about."

"Great!" Girara did a fist-pump. "Now I'll finally know all of Teri's secrets!"

Meanwhile, Teri sneezed.

* * *

**A/N: I chose the name "Pekopon Protection League" solely because it can be abbreviated as "PPL," which sounds like "people" in text-speak. ****My awesome reasoning.**

**And yes, it is a spoof, if you can remember where else you might have seen a bunch of kids making badges and joining together to making a junior league of something.**


	11. Pirate and Ninja

**A/N: ****This is actually what nine-year-olds do in the wild, I swear.**

* * *

The Junior Pekopon Protection League was a secret organization that had been started by the four kids only a year ago, when they were still just seven and eight. It had been a fun concept at first, save for the fact that they didn't really do anything other than occasional investigation and capturing of an alien, which they always had to later hand off to the _actual_ Pekopon Protection League, located in the Nishizawa estates. So, while their Junior PPL had been helpful, they decided it was about time to start doing stuff on their own.

Precisely why Kohizou hadn't told another soul, besides the ones of his three friends, about what he was going to do and where he was heading.

It was the middle of the forest, located just off of Middle Tokyo's gradually diminishing buildings. Kohizou had his mask back on to conceal his identity as he waited there. After a couple of minutes of the peaceful forest silence, he sat on the ground with his knees out, his sword laying in his lap. He shut his eyes and breathed in the air of late summer. A leaf fell just by his elbow.

His eyes opened. The presence was behind him, although it hadn't made a sound upon walking up. Kohizou stood up, his small sword still in his hand.

"Ah, so you already know that I'm behind you," spoke a gruff voice.

"If you were thinking of doing something nasty, it's not going to work."

He heard a clink of metal. "You're quick to judge, boy."

"I hope you're pretty quick, too. Shall we begin?"

"I think we shall."

Instantly, Kohizou whipped around to face his opponent. The alien was old-looking and battered; not in a feeble way, but more of in an intimidating one. His skin took on violet shades, apart from the occasional reddish or pink scar. On his head, a tricorne hat; in his hand, a sharp cutlass blade.

Kohizou was not frightened. Swiftly, he brought his sword up, his forearm guarding his face, and watched as his opponent flicked the cutlass out at his side. They made eye contact for a brief moment. At once, the alien charged at him with his shoulder leading the way as he swung his cutlass through the air. Kohizou vanished; suddenly, he was behind him.

Luckily, the alien's instincts were sharp. He swerved around and drove the cutlass at the boy, but Kohizou swiftly brought his sword up to guard himself. The two blades met and clashed together in an awful sound of metal meeting metal.

The alien reached his hand down and brought out another cutlass, surprising Kohizou. He hadn't expected for the alien to have two of them. This would be more difficult than he expected… he would have to retreat momentarily. Kohizou jumped backward, darting into the safety of the trees, where his opponent could not detect him.

For a nine-year-old, he was quite skilled in combat, and he enjoyed it, too. Lessons in karate and kendo paid off, as well as his other rigorous secret training that he partook in. Society was still in need of his kind. The entire planet was.

There was always backup. Feeling around in a secret pocket in one of his front cloths, Kohizou picked out an assortment of extra weapons. All of a sudden, his alien opponent found numerous kunai knives headed his way, and began to dodge them from all directions. The boy was fast, indeed—almost as fast as himself, he had to admit. But not enough.

The alien was quite skilled in using two swords. With his double cutlasses, there was no need of a shield. He simply just brought both swords in front of his face, crossed them, and was able to deflect all the kunai knives that were heading toward him at a mad speed. Eventually he kept only one guarding himself, while he used the other sword to cut through the forestage in search of Kohizou.

"Ah! Don't do that!" he shouted from somewhere nearby. Kohizou instantly covered his mouth, realizing the stupid mistake he'd just made. He stopped throwing knives and darted away to reappear behind the alien.

As he turned around and swung his cutlass at him, Kohizou managed to duck before it swept his head clean off. His opponent, becoming irritated, whipped out a pistol and aimed it at him. A beam of steaming light shot out, which Kohizou deflected with the thin blade of his own sword. The beam instead shot upward into the sky—neither fighter took his eyes off the other.

"You're good, kid," the alien complimented. He charged at him with the cutlass; Kohizou managed to keep him at bay with the side of the sword he had.

Kohizou smirked and pushed the cutlass of him with the blade, creating sparks. "I practice."

"So do I. Years and years of it."

"You're at a disadvantage, though."

The alien charged at him again, though Kohizou dodged him by quickly stepping back.

"Why do you say that, now?" He threw a grenade at him, which the boy jumped away from.

"The patch over your eye. You have to rely on just the other because of it."

"You wear a mask on your face. Is that any different?"

"At least I can see through mine," Kohizou pointed out.

"You think that a man can't fight with both his eyes? We'll see about that."

"I just think we should make it even, that's all." The voice had come from his left; however, Kohizou was suddenly at his right side. He grabbed the cloth over the alien's eye and tore it off quickly.

For just a moment, an expression of uncertainty flickered across Kohizou's face. His opponent used these few seconds of weakness to do the same to him, grabbing at the cloth by his eyes and stripping it off. They stared at each other.

"Y-you unmasked me…. I mean, I don't usually wear a mask, anyway, but still…."

The alien bent down on the ground and picked up the piece of cloth, fastening it back over his right eye. "I cannot fight you anymore that you have seen that."

"So, I win?"

He tossed both cutlasses at the ground. "Draw."

"Aw…."

"I'm not here to pick fights with children."

Kohizou gave him disappointed eyes. "It's because I haven't practiced enough, isn't it?"

"N-no! I just can't waste any time in my mission, that's all."

"Then why _did_ you agree to fight me?"

The alien didn't answer, of course. He sat down on a log as tried to retrace where he could have went wrong. He had only been attacking a Pekoponian creature at first—just some furry mammal with a large tongue and nose—when that boy dropped out of nowhere and demanded that he fight _him_ instead if he was really looking for someone to duel. He, of course, had agreed.—Why back down from a fight?

There was just one thing he was confused about. _Why is it that Pekoponian children are so strong?_ he wondered. _Headquarters did not notify me of this fact. Nor did they even warn us that our anti-barriers do not even work on the Pekoponian children._

"What is your name, mister?" Kohizou asked, breaking him from his thoughts.

_Should I tell him?_ he wondered. _I suppose we have fought now, so I must have to…._ "I am Staff Sergeant Zurere, the leader of the Zurere Platoon."

"Oh. I'm Kohizou." He held out his hand. Zurere did not shake it. "So, Mister Zurere…."

He looked up at him. "What is it?"

"You don't happen to belong to the ship that crashed, do you?"

His pupils shrunk. How did this boy know about that…?

"Because, uh…." Kohizou twiddled his index fingers. "It's sort of gone now, so…."

"_WHAT_?"

He had his cutlass again; it was pointed at Kohizou's throat.

"Answer me, Pekoponian boy. Where is our ship?"

"I—I don't know. Really." Kohizou gently pushed the edge of the cutlass out of the way of his neck. "Now that I've told you about your ship, will you tell me why you're on Pekopon?"

Growling, Zurere slipped the cutlass back into his belt. "It's the mission that Keron sent me to do. Invade Pekopon."

"Oh." Kohizou's expression did not change. "Well, I'm part of the Junior Pekopon Protection League, and I'm going to protect Pekopon. So I can't let you invade."

"Sorry, what?"

"You don't have your platoon, right, Mister Zurere? So you can't invade without their help. I'll just have to make sure you don't join up with them again."

"…_Wha_—"

Before Zurere could finish the word, Kohizou had already pressed his fingers together in a hand signal. A _poof_ of smoke surrounded the alien and when he looked down, he was tied in rope.

"I'm sorry, but we really _can't_ let you invade."

"You're making a mistake, boy." Zurere narrowed his eye at him as Kohizou began to carry him off. "I would have let you go, but now you've just made enemies with the most fearsome Keronian space pirate ever to set foot in your galaxy."*

* * *

Zurere was certain that he would be able to escape, he just needed to think of _how_…. From the inside of what he could only assume was the Pekoponian Kohizou's prison cell for him, he saw that all doors were virtually nonexistent, his hands were tied to the wall, and the windows were foolishly let open, though he had no hope of reaching them since Kohizou had confiscated all his weaponry and he was still sort of tied up…. Oddly, even though the trap was dreadfully primitive, it worked efficiently enough.

He only had one last defense. He would need to call for backup to save him from this humiliating entrapment. Lifting his leg, Zurere touched his toe to the top edge of his other boot and pushed at it until it slipped off. He turned it over so that the buckle was facing upward; not a buckle, but actually a secret communicator. With his foot, he quickly entered a command.

There were two audio messages on it sent from a few days ago, and two electronic ones. Zurere pressed a button with his foot and waited as the audio filled his ears. They were static-y, but still audible.

_Senior Private Dokiki reporting to Staff Sergeant Zurere…_ went the first message. _The ship has completely vanished. If you will allow me, I must halt scouting momentarily to investigate where it has gone. This is quite concerning._ The message was sent just the other day. Quite frightening indeed.

Frowning, he considered her message of urgency. Yes, it _was_ concerning that their ship vanished. Without the ship, they would be unable to contact each other again and rejoin.

The next message was much more assuring, however. _New Recruit Pulala reporting to Staff Sergeant Zurere…._ Pulala had been speaking in a quiet voice when it had been recorded._ The infiltration mission is going smoothly; I should be in the control center of the NPG in no time. Also, I would like to request some background information on the PPL. From what I've heard of it, it may hinder the mission._ That message was from five days ago.

He tapped the communicator again with his foot, searching for another audio message, but there was none. He growled. Of course there wasn't. One of his members could not press a button to save his life; the other one could not record an audio message for reasons which he could not help. Instead, he entered the command that would show him the visual message, and craned his neck to read it.

_Private First Class Latata here! Hey, Zurere, my man. I just got captured by a Pekoponian and I don't know how to escape from him because Dokiki didn't give me any weapons. All I have is this communicator that's kind of useless because everyone's ignoring my messages to them and I don't know why. Think you could help me out maybe? Thanks! Because I know how reliable my captain is that he would never get kidnapped by a Pekoponian like I just did!_ The message was from about a week ago.

Zurere grimaced, his face twisting into angered expressions. Latata, oh, Latata. There was no part of Zurere that found surprise in the Private's early discovery by the Pekoponians. Noticing that there was another of Latata's messages, he read that one, as well.

_Private First Class Latata again! So guess what? The Pekoponian who captured me said we were going to go out and look for you guys today! How nice! So you'd better send me a message of your location, because I have no idea where you are! You guys didn't leave me, did you? But we're going to look around the ship first to find you guys, if you're still there. So just tell everyone to go to the ship so I can find you guys again! I really hate living with this guy! Thanks. Oh, by the way, how much food do we have in the ship's fridge? I'm STARVING right now!_

That message had been sent that morning. It was late evening now. Amidst Latata's ramblings, Zurere realized with shock what he had been saying. Latata had gone out to search for Zurere and the others that morning. He probably didn't find the ship like he thought he would.

_I can't really rely on LATATA to find me, now, can I…?_ Zurere wondered briefly, until he realized dismissively, no. Definitely not.

With his other leg, he slipped his other boot off and tried to use his foot to activate the response communicator. He moved his foot away when he saw that the screen had cracked completely. It must have broken during his fight with the Pekoponian Kohizou. Not like he would have been able to type a response to Latata, anyway, since he had no toes to do so.

It was hopeless, then… unless he chose to hope that Latata would be able to get the message on his own, perhaps along with that Pekoponian he was with. It was risky but it was all he had.

* * *

*Try "the _only_ Keronian space pirate ever to set foot in your galaxy."


	12. The Twelfth Chapter

**A/N: What are you saying I'm so creative with chapter titles I mean can't you see.**

* * *

Among the many sounds that accumulated in the room, the teacher's voice was the most prominent of them.

Teri heard none of this. He was asleep at his desk, his head filled with dreams completely unrelated to his classroom setting, as dreams usually are. The teacher made his way to Teri's desk and waited for him to awaken. As an incentive for the boy, he rolled up a small stack of papers and gently slapped them against the palm of his hand. The message was clear: Wake up or else. We've got a class goin' on here.

"Mr. Hinata."

Teri continued to snore.

"_Mr. Hinata_." The teacher's tone became harsher. The students around him, save for the sleeping Teri, began to step back with concerned expressions. They knew how scary their teacher could become.

"_Mr. Hinata_!" he finally shouted.

Teri jerked upright in his seat. "What! I'm here. Present."

The teacher just used the curled-up stack of papers to groan and cover his face briefly. Teri looked around himself, then at the clock, and turned red-faced.

"What's the excuse this time, Hinata?" asked the teacher lethargically.

"Uh…." Teri, in his sleepy state, took the questions seriously and began to search his mind for an excuse. Just having woken up and all, he didn't really have any good ones at the top of his head. There was no way, of course, that he was going to tell his teacher that he had been out all day with a deaf frog-like creature, searching for alien invaders so he could capture them and put this whole mess aside—and that when he had come home, it was already late at night, his parents hadn't come home yet, and Girara was spending the night at her friend's house, so Latata took the opportunity to wreak some havoc so he could wash the stress of the day off himself, and Teri had to spend half the night calming the Keronian down while trying to get him to understand the importance of laying low in Teri's house.

In fact, although searching for the rest of the aliens was part of what happened, it did not end in the way he had expected. They _had_ searched for the rest of Latata's platoon—venturing first to the area where Latata told him their ship had crashed. Surprisingly, it was awfully nearby the area that Teri's summer camp had been in. However, they saw nothing; the ship was nowhere to be found. They spent hours thinking up possibilities of what could have happened to the massive contraption; it was unlikely that its disappearance owed to one of those "anti-barriers," since they didn't work on Pekoponians, and Latata would have been able to still see it and feel it. Latata's platoon certainly wouldn't have taken off without him… and obviously someone couldn't have just _carried it off_.

Already a minute had passed, and the teacher was still waiting for an answer. Teri guiltily hung his head. "I—I'm sorry, Teacher." He heard some other students pass a giggle, and his face turned slightly pink.

"We already have enough students sleeping in class as it is, Mr. Hinata," the teacher informed him. "Not you, too, all right?"

His teacher walked past, letting him off easy, but Teri's eyes went immediately to the girl a few desks in front of him who was still sleeping. With her whitish—or was it purplish? He wasn't quite sure what color to call it—twin-tails scattered about her shoulders, it was unmistakably Hope. Their teacher had long since stopped trying to wake the girl up from her ritualistic naps at whatever random time she pleased.

_Not like she needs to pay attention half the time, anyway,_ thought Teri as he laid his cheek against his hand, gazing at her still. _She's really smart already._ Not that he was jealous; in fact, a part of him felt oddly proud. …She was such an angel when she slept.

Teri did not have to have his eyes closed to be dreaming.

The only difference was that, this time, his wakeup call was the sentient backpack that moved up against his leg.

He jolted again. That was weird. No, it couldn't have just been his backpack that—

The backpack nudged his leg again.

Frowning, Teri lifted the bag onto his desk. He didn't want to think of what this could have meant. There was only one way to test. In the most painful and slow manner, he ground his knuckles into the sides of his backpack, and felt a low groan emit from it.

He quickly turned nervous. Bad idea—what if someone else had heard that? But his worry had been confirmed. Angrily, he dragged the heavy backpack off his desk and threw it underneath, not forgetting to kick it out of the way of his feet. More groans. Yup. Latata had definitely stowed away in his bag again. Thoughts of Hope were painstakingly put aside for a moment while Teri thought about what to do.

This was definitely not the first time Latata had stowed away in his bag. Teri thought back to the other times. It had been hectic and quite humiliating for him, since he had to find some way to keep Latata out of everyone's sight while at the same time maintaining his front as a dutiful student. It was a lot more difficult than it sounded.

At the moment, Latata was awfully restful. Maybe he was sleeping, too. Yeah, maybe _everyone_ was just asleep today; maybe that was it. In the back of his mind, Teri doubted it. As long as he didn't do anything stupid or outgoing, then there was really nothing to worry about—

Just then, Latata did something stupid and outgoing.

The backpack he had entrapped himself in was rather stuffy and uncomfortable, so he decided that it was time to get some fresh air by reaching his arm out of the crook of the bag and stepping right out.

"Aah!" Teri quickly stood up and tossed his jacket over Latata—in time, luckily. Already the entire class had turned to him, watching as he began to pale. _Oh no oh no oh no oh no this can't seriously be happening,_ he internally screamed.

"Mr. Hinata." The teacher stood at the electronic board in front of the classroom with a corresponding pen in his hand. He frowned. "Please take your seat so I may resume the lesson."

"Haha, sorry, right…." Teri gave a nervous smile and sat back down. "I was just…. My… books spilled out and I was picking them…. Yeah."

He shot Latata a glare and hastily shoved him back inside the bag.

Teri's heart pounded against his chest in fear. He was pretty sure he had tossed that jacket over Latata early enough, but what if someone had seen the Keronian when he came out? Then everyone would suddenly know about aliens…. That, or they would think that Teri was a weirdo for keeping strange pets in his backpack. Then he'd probably get a visit to the principal's office, and then they would either confiscate Latata or contact his parents… both of whom he _really_ didn't want to know about the whole fiasco. They got scary when they were angry, and he was pretty sure that hanging out with an alien invader was definitely under their list of things that he shouldn't do. And then, of course, things between his friends like Yaoe and Sosuke would get awkward because they'd want to know why Teri found out about the existence of aliens and didn't tell them.

Not particularly anything he was all that keen on going through.

Something nudged Teri's foot. He resisted the urge to look down, but finally, he gave in. It was a folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, he saw that a small message was scribbled on it that was unquestionable Latata handwriting.

_You've got to clean out your backpack, man,_ read the note. Teri frowned and crumpled it up.

Another note came. _So where's the girl that you like? You know, the one who tutors you? Is she in this class?_

And then another. _Don't worry, Teri, I'm sure I could set you two up together! I could be a perfect cupid, acting as an invisible force that just attracts the two of you together, just like gravity did with our ship to Pekoponian ground!_

Teri kicked him so that he would stop passing notes. Then he passed a note to Latata himself.

_Or the attraction of my foot to your face._

Latata tossed another note at him. _Do not kick me! Don't you know it's going to look weird if you keep kicking your backpack?_

Teri scribbled down another note. _What are you talking about? I just really, really like to kick my backpack._ He dropped the note, expecting to hear the folded paper fall to the ground… but he didn't. Instead he felt a warm presence nearby him….

It was the teacher.

Teri paled.

The whole class was staring at him now. With a very serious look on his face, the teacher calmly unfolded the note in his hand that Teri had written. Teri swore that his ears shattered when the teacher read it out loud.

" 'What are you talking about? I just really, really like to kick my backpack.' "

He turned to Teri, looking down at him from above the rim of his glasses, and gave a slow nod. Rather absentmindedly, Teri began to nod along with him. Then he shook his head.

"No? You don't like to kick backpacks?" asked the teacher with a hint of a smile.

"No, I do not, sir. I don't like to kick backpacks."

The teacher gestured to Teri's bag under his desk. "Well, then, you'd better tell that to your backpack, because the poor thing looks terrified."

Teri didn't understand what the teacher meant until he _did_ look at his backpack—and realize, with horror, that it was trembling in fright.

* * *

"Kicking backpacks… augh…. I can't believe that actually happened…" Teri muttered to himself in distress. One thing he could be glad for that day was that Hope had been asleep. So unless one of his devilish friends like Yaoe or Sosuke filled her in on the humiliating scene, _she_ would never have to know what transpired.

It was the end of the school day and he was walking home with Latata still in the bag on his back. It wasn't that hard carrying the guy. Surprisingly, he was heavier than Hope was when he had carried her. Maybe it was just an alien thing.

When he came to the edge of the block, he took a right. The elementary school that his little sister went to was just a little ways away and he had to pick her up from school himself, since his parents weren't at home. In fact, his next stop after the elementary school was his parents' workplace. It was a long distance away, though, which was why Teri and Girara had left their bikes by her school so they could get to their parents' workplace as soon as possible.

After much more walking, Girara's elementary school came into view, and Teri jogged up to it. The bell must have just rung since all the kids were being let out. Teri caught sight of his sister and walked to her.

"Hey, Girara." He stopped when she was beside him and walked with her down the stairs. "Do you have all your things? Your bike and everything?"

"Yeah." Girara was looking past him. She went up to her bike and began to unchain it from the bike rack.

"You seem… unusually quiet today."

"Yeah," she said again.

_Is it just me, or is she trying really hard not to look me in the eye?_ Teri wondered.

The kids around them were clearing out, and slowly the numbers dwindled until it was just the two of them. Girara had her hands on the handles of her bike, still looking away from her brother. Teri was just heading toward his own bike when his sister spoke.

"Hey… Teri."

"Yeah?" he said back.

She looked up at him with the cutest puppy dog eyes. "Why have you been acting all weird?"

Teri blinked at her.

She clasped her hands together. "Please please please _please_ tell me?"

"Uh…."

"Tell me all your secrets…" he heard her say in a more whispery voice.

"No thanks." Teri turned away from her and unchained his bike. His sister's puppy dog face turned to a disgruntled pout.

"You've been acting weird!" she reminded him.

"Says the kid who just asked me to tell her all my secrets." He couldn't help but laugh. His sister could be silly. …Sometimes too silly.

"Really weird." Her voice took on a more genuine tone, causing Teri to turn to her. Girara was looking at the ground now with a rather sad expression. Teri honestly didn't know what to say to cheer her up. He acted weird? When did that happen? He was pretty sure he didn't act weird. It was probably just Girara being _her_ usual weird self by thinking that _he_ acted weird.

_Or maybe she means…_ Teri blushed suddenly. Maybe this was about the Hope thing. He had no idea that had changed him so much, though…. This only caused him to blush more.

"Teri, why does your face look all red?" Girara giggled. "You look like Daddy does. Ah!" She touched her fingertips to her chin. "Teri, you're acting weird because of your girlfriend, aren't you?"

Teri frowned. "No."

"Ah, thaaaat's why!" She spun around in a circle. "Teri's just soooo in love with his girlfriend that he's started acting crazy!"

"Ahhh! No! It's not like that!" Teri frantically waved his hands in front of himself. "Uh—looks like we're both ready to go get Mom and Dad. Come on." He hoisted her onto her bike, got onto his own, and started pedaling rapidly.

"Wait, Teri! Wait up!"

* * *

The Nishizawa manor was pretty huge.

"Huge" was probably an understatement, though—with a surplus of butlers and highly-trained bodyguards in the most deadly arts of battle and self-defense, hundreds of square acres to bolster, an entire manor or two or maybe even three just for living and recreation, too many collections of the most recently-developed super-weapons not yet released to even the government of its own country, vast expanses of gardens and the most cultivated of farmlands, its own personal shopping center, and owned by the famed multi-trillionare head of the Nishizawa corporation who held more than half the entire world's economy—it went far beyond "huge."

And that made it _way_ too intimidating. Teri avoided the place when he could. Unfortunately, it was also the home of his bratty cousins… and one of his little sister's best friends… and the location of his parents' workplace. So, he found that he had to go there actually quite often, an errand he had not learned to enjoy.

_I sure hope that Latata's buried deep in my backpack,_ thought Teri. _Wouldn't want him finding out that my cousins happen to be the only grandchildren of the richest man on Earth…._ In retrospect, that was a pretty overwhelming thought by itself, perhaps even more so than what the Keronian might do with that knowledge.

As they approached the gates to the Nishizawa manor, Teri and Girara brought their bikes to a halt and walked to the voice registration box. When the person behind the machine somewhere recognized them, they were let inside. The road to the actual doors of the mansion was long, but in a few minutes they finally made it inside after parking their bikes off to the side.

They had been to the residence many times before, Girara more so than her brother. Even still, both remembered the foyer vividly—the stone columns framing the doors… the recently polished marble floor… the velvet carpet stretching out before them, decorating by potted plants occasionally on the side… the priceless paintings displayed everywhere… a ceiling that stretched above their heads probably a hundred feet up… fountains set against the wall… the afternoon light beating through the giant windows….

But when they entered the gigantic building, they did not at all see the scene that they had expected. Instead, the stone columns had fallen. The marble floor that had always been so polished they could see their reflection when they looked down was now coated in the dirt from the potted plants, whose vases had shattered. The fountain water was murky with the same dirt. Some of the paintings had fallen, and some were torn right through. Through the ceiling was an enormous, jagged hole, as if something had burst through. The windows that let the light in were completely shattered. Bodyguards and butlers scurried about everywhere.

Teri picked up a piece of metal and turned it over in his hand. "There must have been some sort of accident," he speculated. This was definitely something he needed to record into his notebook when he got the chance. "It looks awful."

"Wooow," breathed Girara. "Everything's been blown up and destroyed. Cool."

Her brother frowned at her. "Girara, that's not what you're supposed to say when you see something absolutely devastating. Besides, we've got to look for mom and dad… and I sure hope they didn't get caught up in this—Oh! It's them!"

Teri rushed up, and Girara trailed after. Amidst the chaos were both his parents on the ground. His father was helping his mom pluck out some glass shards that had gotten stuck in her hair, presumably when the windows had shattered.

"Mom! Dad! Are you all right?" Teri asked with fright.

Girara looked around and pouted. "You didn't have fun without me, did you?"

"No…." Their dad shook his head. "We just ran into a bit of trouble, that's all. But the problem's been terminated and there's nothing to worry about anymore."

"You sure?" Teri's eyes wandered off to another spot in the foyer, where he spotted his cousin Himani being carried/dragged off by one of the butlers. Didn't look too much like _his_ problem was taken care of.

"Please, Master Himani… you must calm down," his butlers begged.

"But I was so close!" Himani shouted. His anguish-filled voice echoed through the large expanse of the mansion's entryway. "So, so, so, so close…. I will succeed next time! I swear on it!" In the corner of his eye, Teri barely caught sight a short, dark figure—around the same height as Latata—shrink behind one of the broken pillars.

_Huh? What was that?_ Teri wondered. _It looked like… a Keronian?_ He broke away from his thoughts when Himani gave another cry of anguish.

If Himani was there, his sister must have been somewhere close by. It didn't take Teri long to spot her—he only had to turn to his right.

"I'm so sorry!" Hanayu bowed to his parents. "We didn't mean for this to happen…. It was really only supposed to be a little distraction from Himani's plots."

"You need to have a talk with that guy," Teri's dad advised her, "preferably before things turn out like _this_ again."

"Yeah…." She paused, curling a bit of her light blue hair as she looked off to the side. "…Oh! Teri. I didn't see you there. And Girara, too. Are you here for your mother and father?"

"Uh-huh!" Girara smiled.

"Haha, well, I'd better send you off then. Would you like a limo?"

"That's quite all right, but we'd rather—"

"I'll send a limo." Hanayu happily pushed some buttons on her cell phone. "Consider it my apology on behalf of Himani."

"Hanayu, most of the damage is thanks to Yutoto and you…" Teri's mom hesitantly pointed out.

After a pause, Hanayu's eyes darted toward the shattered window. "Oh! Looks like the limo's here. Nice to see you all again! Hope you can come by soon!"

Teri looked at her quizzically. That was one fast limo. He shook his head, dismissing the thought. His cousins were weird. They were way too rich, all right, but willing to destroy parts of their own mansion for some weird, childish plot of theirs? At times like these he genuinely felt as though he could not understand a single thought that ran through Hanayu or Himani's heads.

After waving goodbye to Hanayu, Teri turned around and began to head off with the rest of his family. Since he had no eyes in the back of his head, he did not see when the top of his backpack popped open and Latata stealthily peered out. He did not see when Latata looked around the scene with surprise… nor did he have any idea that Hanayu became quite suspicious after seeing two very Keronian eyes peer out from Teri's backpack.

* * *

**A/N: So what happened in the Nishizawa manor? What could Hanayu and Himani have done to destroy it all? And _why_? Who was the dark figure behind the pillar? All shall be revealed next chapter. (I'm actually telling the truth this time, yo.)**

**Also, um... any suggestions for better chapter titles, I'm gladly open to.**


	13. Himani and Yutoto: Master Invaders

**A/N: Guess what? I'm not dead! Ahaha. Thank you all for your patience, and sorry that I left for more than half a year. There were a few things that came up.**

**Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

Himani and Hanayu knew all about the Pekopon Protection League. After all, it was founded when they were mere two-year-olds. It was also located on the estate of their family's property, since one of the founders was their aunt.

Naturally, the PPL had good intentions—protect the Earth from alien invaders while keeping the secret of aliens in society. There was just one problem: It went in direct conflict with their own plans. The planet, of course, was meant to be theirs and theirs alone.

To be more accurate, it was actually Himani who came up with the idea. Hanayu followed along, because why not. It was a perfect dream. It might have been easily attainable, since they had all the funds to back themselves up—there was just the issue of the PPL… and the fact that their dad, an alien researcher and treaty-maker in the PPL himself (as well as a co-founder—what a party-pooper!) would have to sit them down each time they tried to take over the planet, and give them the usual talk: "No, kids. You cannot take over Earth. We have to protect the planet, which means no conquering. Sorry, guys."

Hanayu passed it off as good old fun, but Himani's plots grew more and more complex as his desire to conquer the planet for himself grew stronger and stronger day by day.

Luckily, he wasn't the only one. His sister and he had a secret weapon. They had an invader on their side.

* * *

Earlier that day, the Nishizawa mansion was in an uproar.

"The young master in missing! The young master is missing!" The message of urgency rang everywhere throughout the estate. "Master Himani! Where is he?"

The personal butler of the twins bowed to Hanayu. "Thank you deeply for notifying us of this terrible occurrence, Miss Hanayu."

"Oh, Yoshiokaira… I do hope that they find my brother soon…. I am ever so worried for him." Hanayu dabbed at the corner of her eye with a handkerchief. She turned away to stare out into the horizon, causing the skirt of her GothLoli outfit to swish.

"Do not worry, Miss Hanayu." He saluted her. "We will do whatever it takes to retrieve Master Himani."

"Oh, please do find him soon!" she begged again.

Per request of young Miss Hanayu, and per the duty of highly trained bodyguards, ten thousand men were sent out in search for Himani. They loaded into jets, submarines, military tanks, marching squads, and took quite practical disguises such as soda machines, garbage cans, stop lights, and small cats. In just three short minutes, the Nishizawa estate was almost emptied with all its butlers and bodyguards away.

Hanayu fell against a tapestry in distress. "I want to eat cheesecake!"

As if by hidden cue, her lamenting was cut short as the ceiling nearly a hundred feet above burst open from firearms.

"Gerrra, gerrra, gerrra!"

Hanayu let out a scream of very extreme fright. She covered her head with both her forearms as the stone and glass from the ceiling rained down around her. When she lowered her arms, her eyes widened and she let out a gasp. Before her stood a Viper—equipped with a hovercraft and arm-cannons!

"Don't bother calling for help, foolish Pekoponians!" said the Viper as he thrust his arm out. "I am the distant relative of the last viper you fought off, an incident where—"

A pause. He scratched his head.

"Where did everyone go?"

"My brother has gone missing and all the bodyguards are out looking for him!" Hanayu explained. "Please, take whatever you want, just don't take me! I know I'm adorable, but you must resist!"

"I don't fool around with Pekoponians," said the Viper with a snakey grin. "But I do think I shall take you as a hostage! Gerrra, gerrra, gerrra."

Hanayu let out another scream as the Viper stretched out a claw from his back, wrapped it around the girl, and lifted her into the air. Red lights were set off around all the walls of the mansion.

"D-dammit! What could this possibly be?" the Viper cursed.

Hanayu looked down at him and smirked. "You'll regret infiltrating the Nishizawa mansion, Viper-pest. The forces of PPL are coming in right at this moment and they're going to take you down!"

"Ohhh noooo!"

It took no time at all for the super-speed security cameras to pick up the footage of the young heir being taken hostage, which was sent instantly to the forces of the Pekopon Protection League. Red lights blared in the headquarters of the PPL; the two commandants threw down their sets of headphones and headed out with their best-trained soldiers. There was danger a-brewin' and it was time to use their arsenal.

Protecting Pekopon from aliens, even Vipers if it must have been so, was their highest priority. Unfortunately, it also meant they got their feet wet protecting the Nishizawa twins… one too many times. Usually from themselves.

"The PPL forces are heading here right now," Hanayu stated with satisfaction. "Do whatever you want with me, Viper scum. But don't be too harsh. This outfit cost a _ton_. And that's me saying that. You hear me?"

"Well then, it seems to me that we're in need of some excitement for these troops, eh? Gerrra gerrra gerrra."

PPL forces came zooming in on wing-packs from at all angles from the hallways. The Viper zoomed into the air on his hovercraft, still clutching Hanayu with the metal claw that extended from his back. Both commandants of the entire arsenal of soldiers flew up in front of the Viper, pointing their weapons at him.

"He's airborne," one of the commandants spoke into the earpiece hidden under her pink hair. "Make sure not to hit the girl. We need a squad to position themselves underneath her with a safety net. Ready… aim… _fire!_"

Bullets flew at the Viper from all directions. Hanayu actually did begin to look afraid now, but the Viper had a good clutch on her; she was not going to fall or get hit. The bullets, however, all metallically sounded but bounced off the Viper's body.

"I've seen this trick before," said the other commandant, the blond one, as he glared.

The Viper would have taken a step back if he wasn't in the air on a hovercraft. "Uh… Viper Snake-Tornado Technique!" he called. Hanayu was allowed to slip from his grasp, and she fell safely into the net below. The Viper began to spin rapidly, creating a torpedo of air. The windows of the mansion in the foyer promptly burst, and glass shattered everywhere. All soldiers on the ground could not take the pressure of the air pushed against them, and they started falling back, literally. The soldiers who were airborne, however—including the two commandants—stood their ground, so to speak, as they activated their blaster-boots to keep themselves suspended.

The more the Viper spun, the closer he was lowered to the ground by his own force. When the bottom of his hovercraft touched the polished marble floor, all lights went out in the mansion.

"Th-the power went out?! How did that happen?" one of the soldiers griped.

With a groan, the blond commandant spoke up. "You're soldiers, not whiners. Twist the knob on the side of your helmets to activate night-vision goggles. Should do you some good, if you realize you can use your brains, too."

The soldiers muttered amongst themselves as they marveled at this newfound function—the latter one, mostly.

"Peh. You're all a bunch of idiots. That's what you are." It was the Viper who spoke—they could see him now. "This was too easy."

"You say that, yet you have not even escaped with Miss Hanayu! She is safe in our—"

Hanayu pointed a gun at them.

"—hands…?"

They now saw what the gun was. It was a super weapon exclusive to the Nishizawa Corporation, a device that neutralized the energy in other electric-, nuclear-, or alien-energy-powered weapons, rendering them completely useless.

"Miss Hanayu, what is the meaning of this?"

"We were played for fools." The blond commandant mouthed a "tsk." "I should have guessed this would happen."

With an innocent smile, she lowered the instrument. "Sorry. I'm just trying to make sure that the Pekopon Protection League can finally be taken down once and for all. Then Himani can have the planet."

"But—but Miss—"

"So Himani was behind this once again!"

The other commandant (sadly, it happened to be Hanayu's aunt) clenched her fists. "You can't do this!" she shouted out in anger. "Hanayu, the PPL is more than that. It's not just a little obstacle in your game with your brother."

The Viper crossed his arms with a satisfying grin. "Then you're just an obstacle, too…. One that needs to be temporarily removed…." He reached forward to the pink-haired commandant. When she flicked her arm up and was about to blast him to bits, she realized that energy from the solar-cannon on her arm was completely powerless in the presence of Hanayu's super weapon.

For just an instant, it looked like the Viper was going to actually win—

—until the other commandant dove in front of her. His narrow eyes glared at the Viper. "_I… won't… let… you… hurt… Natsumi…_" he growled. There was a rifle in his hands, which he took no hesitation in shooting at the Viper with. The bullets fell right into the cannon situated on the Viper's arm, and suddenly, there was an explosion of light. Both Viper and commandant fell to the ground. The explosion and dust quickly subsided, leaving Hanayu dropping her gun with a shocked expression.

"Giroro!" Natsumi rushed to his side and fell to her knees beside him. "Are you hurt?"

"Nah." With a dismissive laugh, he sat back up and de-materialized the rifle. "It was just an old antique, so Hanayu's super weapon wouldn't have neutralized anything." He paused and peered at something. "Hold still. You have some glass in your hair…."

Meanwhile, the bits of exploded Viper began to move on the ground. Other soldiers shrunk away in confusion, but Hanayu dashed forward.

"Gggng…." From the metallic rubble, a dark blue Keronian tadpole sat up, rubbing his head under his green hat groggily.

"Ah—Yutoto!" Hanayu picked him up. "S-sorry. I guess 'Operation: Distract with Distractions' didn't work. Himani must've not had enough time to infiltrate PPL's defenses. Maybe next time? I—I'm sure that 1,847th time is the charm—"

"Yeah, cut it out, Hanayu." Yutoto pushed his hands against her so she would drop him. He kicked at some rubbles of the Viper. "It…. It didn't work, all right? That's… all that matters right now."

"I'm sorry!" She bowed to him apologetically.

Yutoto sighed and walked over the a broken column. Even with half its length stripped from it, it still towered above him. "Whatever, Hanayu. Just…." Another sigh came from him.

Hanayu could tell that he was really bummed out because things didn't work out again. Yutoto was usually bummed out after a failed plan, as was Himani, though Himani was always the louder of the two about it. He'd complain for a day or so about how things _should've_ gone his way but they just didn't due to other certain factors, and then his next scheme would be even grander and more expensive. The cost of today's, for example, was around fifty million yen for all the damage done to the mansion—ranking in one of their least expensive plots for sure. Still, both Yutoto and Himani would give up at nothing to conquer the planet.

Butlers and bodyguards loaded the foyer with Himani caught in their midst. Earlier they'd realized that Himani was stringing them around by pretending to be missing and in danger, when he was actually just missing and putting other people in danger. In the absence of all the PPL soldiers, they were able to pinpoint his location in PPL headquarters.

Some of the butlers and bodyguards began to chastise Hanayu. "Miss! You know better than to put yourself in danger like that."

Hanayu frowned. "I was in no danger. Yutoto wasn't going to hurt me. Besides, this was Himani's idea."

It was best to put the blame on someone else. Then again, it actually _had_ been Himani's idea. Yutoto pitched in his own ideas occasionally, but… well… they were usually rather absurd and unrealistic. Though oddly, it was usually the absurd and unrealistic ones that worked the best, as studies of invaders like Urere had shown.

"Yutoto, huh," said a butler. "Where would he be now?"

"Getting lost. Like you should be!" Yutoto warned, right before he slipped behind the broken pillar to mope.

At the other end of the foyer, Himani started fighting with the bodyguards, and they started carrying him off. Pretty normal for him. Instead of watching, Hanayu headed over to Giroro and Natsumi, who were sitting together as they picked glass out of Natsumi's long, pink hair that she had way too much of.

Hanayu bowed immediately to them. "I'm so sorry! We didn't mean for this much damage to happen…. It was really only supposed to be a little distraction from Himani's plots."

"You need to have a talk with that guy," Giroro advised her, "preferably before things turn out like _this_ again."

"Yeah…." She paused, curling a bit of her light blue hair as she looked off to the side. Teri and Girara were there. She hadn't even noticed.

After arranging a limo to pick the family up—so much for Giroro going into his Pekoponian form to drive!—she watched as they headed through the doors of the mansion. Oddly enough, when Teri turned his back to her, she almost thought she saw two very Keronian eyes peer out from his backpack. She made a mental reminder for herself to ask Yutoto about that.

* * *

It was the middle of the night. The three of them met in Himani's roomalong with Neroko, who was Yutoto's younger sister. While Himani and Yutoto threw in their ideas for the next invasion plot, Hanayu entertained Neroko by telling her all about the failed plan of the day.

For some reason, Neroko thought the picture was too funny. "Hahaha! Yutoto's robot-Viper really did explode like a balloon?"

"Yes. That's what happened," said Hanayu.

"Can Yutoto take down a giant robot, too?"

"Uh…" Her eyes slid skeptically to the dark blue Keronian behind her who was talking in a serious voice with her brother. "…I'm not so sure about that. Yutoto has his limits, you know."

Yutoto's ears picked this up, and he snapped his head at her. "_WERE YOU JUST TALKING ABOUT ME?!_"

"Aah…! I got Yutoto angry!" Hanayu sweat-dropped. Her heart began to thump as Yutoto advanced on her. She felt as if she should feel scared, but one look at Yutoto's expression could cause anyone to fall to the ground in laughter. That's what Hanayu did.

"_WHAT'S SO FUNNY, HANAYU?!_"

"It's just… your face! Hahahaha." She was clutching her stomach and rolling. "I'm sorry, your voice is just so girly that you don't sound all that scary."

"_I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET SAYING THAT_—"

From behind him, Himani tried to hold back his laughter, too. Yutoto snapped his head at him, and he promptly shut up.

"Yutoto, you sound silly when you're angry," Neroko said as she giggled.

"_SHUT UP, YOU ANNOYING LITTLE BRAT!_"

"Aaah! Don't tickle me!" Neroko screamed. She darted behind Himani for protection, since he wasn't stuck on the floor laughing like his sister was.

As everyone was laughing, Yutoto just looked angrier and angrier at them, which was causing them to laugh more. It was an endless cycle. At one point Yutoto just left to compose himself, then came back in a few minutes looking a whole lot calmer.

"Ah.~ That was refreshing." He stretched out his fingers.

Neroko sucked in a gasp. "YUTOTO YOU DIDN'T JUST EAT THE CAKE IN THE FRIDGE DID Y—"

"No, Neroko." Yutoto shot her a glare. "I know that cake was yours." He smirked. "I ate the one on the counter."

"But—but—that was mine, too!"

"Muahahahaha," he laughed deviously.

"I hate you, Yutoto!"

"Funny, that's what your friend Kohizou said to you the other day, wasn't it?"

"Uh—I—um… I still hate you!"

Someone cleared his throat behind them. It was Himani; he was tapping a roll of papers impatiently against his knee. "Yutoto, I believe we have some very important business to discuss," he tried to speak very professionally. The formal clothes and dark hair definitely helped his image. He looked at his sister. "Hanayu, you should join."

"But—I almost finished telling Neroko about—"

"There is no time for reminiscing. What's in the past is gone." He pointed the roll of papers into nowhere. "There is only the future to look forward to!"

Hanayu sweat-dropped again. "You've been spending way too much time with Grandpa."

"Nnnno, I haven't."

"Yes, you have."

"Well." He cleared his throat again and sat back down. "Back to business. So I think that our last plan didn't work because Yutoto didn't distract the PPL long enough. We need a better distraction. Something much bigger."

"I wonder how much _this_ one's going to cost," said Yutoto gravely.

Himani tapped his chin, then dismissed the comment with a smile. "Details don't matter. We'll always have enough money to conquer the planet. And when we run out, we'll have conquered the planet by that time, so technically we'll never run out!"

"_Technically_, that's not how it works. Instead, here's my idea." Yutoto spread out a map and pointed to various building markings. "After monitoring the Pekoponians using the anti-barrier that I'm equipped with—"

From behind him, Neroko tore at her hair and shouted, "Why don't _I_ have one of those?!"

"—I've noticed that they are most dependant on these buildings." He pointed to the drugstore, the CD store, the grocery store, and the candy shop. "If we buy out these companies and close them down for a week or two, the Pekoponians will be vulnerable enough that we can strike—with military weapons from the Nishizawa corporation!"

"Wow. That's a great idea!" Himani marveled, unable to see past Yutoto's ulterior motive—to steal the candy shop and raid it. "We shall start at once with this plan."

"Shouldn't you wait to buy out all those stores so that the NPG and the PPL would have forgotten about today's incident before you strike again?" asked Hanayu.

"Nah. We should start immediately." He was still in a planet-conquering mood.

"What… day?" Yutoto asked slowly.

"Let's make it a Tuesday."

"But I _hate_ Tuesdays!" he protested.

"Okay… how about Thursday, then?"

"Can't. Uh… I won't be on Pekopon. Eternity's coming that day and we'll be leaving after that."

"Well, it can't be tomorrow on Monday. Hanayu and I have other stuff that day."

"What about Wednesday?" Hanayu suggested.

Yutoto jumped to his feet. "Oh yes! Absolutely. Totally free Wednesday."

Neroko was the one to see past this, and she frowned at her older brother. "Yutoto! But I thought we were going somewhere on Wednesday with Daddy and Papa."

He frowned and rubbed his arm irritably. "Oh, right…. How could I forget," he said monotonously. "We were going somewhere as a _family_."

"What's so bad about it, though?" asked Hanayu. "Your parents are so great! I love hanging out with them."

Yutoto grunted and sat down again, pulling his knees to his chest. "That's just the thing. They're way too… carefree. It's so hard to think about invasion of Pekopon when they're just derping all over the place." He began to shiver. "And then there's… the Pekoponian suits…."

"They never make _me_ wear Pekoponian suits," said Neroko proudly, "because _I_ blend in perfect with the Pekoponians."

"Oh, you have so much to learn." Yutoto looked at his younger sister with pity for her ignorance.

That so-called Keronian little sister of his had dark hair and dark eyes, although she did frequently wear a very skin-tight suit that resembled a Keronian's design. In other words, she was just another Pekoponian, unlike Yutoto, who _was_ an actual Keronian. Neroko hadn't a clue about what she was, which Yutoto had always thought to be really dumb. Seriously, how could someone be alive for nine full years and never once look down at her body to realize she wasn't what she thought she was?

"Well, I guess we can always decide on a date tomorrow," said Himani as he began to yawn.

"Speaking of dates…." Hanayu looked at Yutoto and snickered. "Yutoto, didn't you mention that Eter—"

"Uh, no." He crossed his arms and looked away, although the blush on his face did not go unnoticed by the twins, as well as his younger sister.

"Tee-hee! How long are you gonna be gone, Yutoto?" she asked.

"Um…. A week or two, I think…."

"Yes!" Neroko pumped a fist in the air.

"You seem to be looking forward to me leaving," Yutoto said with a bit of dissatisfaction.

"Sorry, you're just annoying to me sometimes."

He sighed. "Brutally honest, as always…. At least I won't have to be there when you destroy the house."

"It's oaky. We'll be able to cover the damage costs." Hanayu's face was very serious.

Yutoto rolled his eyes a bit. He had meant to be sarcastic, but whatever. His family was residing in one of section of the Nishizawa manor—with rent, of course, but at a reasonable deduction since they were under the protection of the PPL as an alien family living on Pekopon—so all the havoc that their home underwent, which happened rather frequently, was repaired by the NPG, anyway.

Neroko grinned in an attempt to make her brother jealous. "We're going to have _so much fun_ without you."

"I'm not jealous, Neroko. I'm eight years older than you. I won't fall for that sort of thing."

"Papa said we could go to the cheesecake factory when you were gone."

…Now Yutoto really _did_ look a bit jealous.

"Ah!" Hanayu stood up at the door to the room opened up. "Someone's coming in. Yutoto, Neroko, I think it's your parents."

"Well, speak of the devil." Yutoto slapped the ground and got to his feet. "You and Himani have a good whatever-it-is you're doing tomorrow…" He made a face. "…and wish me luck for Wednesday…."

"Good luck!" Himani and Hanayu said in sync, waving him goodbye.

Yutoto frowned and walked with his sister and parents out the door.

* * *

Himani just didn't understand how important it was for Yutoto to invade. It meant everything. It was what he was born for. Literally.

But when he turned three, just when he was beginning to understand the importance of invasion, suddenly everything had to be flipped around. His parents looked past the purpose of their platoon's little genetic experiment and began to pay more attention to other things, like each other. Just a little while after that, there was no more invasion of Pekopon.

Until Himani came along another three years later, Yutoto was by himself. He swore to prove to all of them that he could do it. That was what he was born for, after all. Just two strands of DNA to create and raise the perfect soldier to invade Pekopon. They had succeeded too well, for the weapon they had created was more efficient than its own users had ever been.

Hanayu covered her mouth and gasped, interrupting the partially relevant narrative.

"What is it, Hanayu?" asked her brother.

"Omigosh! I _totally_ forgot to tell Yutoto about the thing in Teri's backpack. And I'm not gonna see him again till next Thursday!" Hanayu tore open the door to the room and peered out in the hallway, but Yutoto and the rest of his family weren't there anymore.

"Um… _what_ thing in Teri's backpack?"

Realizing that she had not told her own brother, Hanayu shut the door. "Earlier today, when Teri was leaving the mansion with his parents and Girara, it looked like he had a Keronian hiding away in his backpack."

Himani snickered. It was an interesting picture to imagine.

"I don't think this is very funny, Himani," she told him with a frown. "What are other Keronians doing on Pekopon? And why hasn't Teri told the PPL about this?"

Himani looked at her seriously, seeing her point. "Wait—it can't be—another invader has come?"

She shook her head in uncertainty. "I don't know. I don't know why Keron would do that."

"Well…" Himani touched his chin in thought. "…I _did_ hear Dad say that the Keroro Platoon's only gone missing, to Keron's knowledge."

"Oh! So maybe Keron has come to search for them?"

"Or maybe… they really did send more invaders." He looked up at his sister, his purple eyes welling with ideas. "Do you know what this means, Hanayu?"

"Um… what?"

He grinned excitedly. "We can capture one of the invaders to help _us_ conquer the planet!"


	14. Missing Platoon?

**Hey, sorry I haven't updated the story in a century. Anyway here's who the characters are in case you forgot:**

**Teri Hinata - forgetful and absentminded kid, has a crush on Hope, imprisoned Latata, Giroro and Natsumi's son**

**Girara Hinata - Teri's little sister, part of the Junior Pekopon Protection League (Junior PPL)**

**Yaoe and Sosuke - Unimportant background characters**

**Hope - Teri's tutor cause he's not so smart but she is. He has a crush on her. Her dad makes her hang out with Merion. She doesn't really like him**

**Merion - His mom owns the Hojo Dojo. He likes to draw and he also likes Hope. All the girls in school ship him and Teri. He doesn't like that so much.**

**Kohizou Azumaya - A nine-year-old ninja who likes to cook, Dororo and Koyuki's son, part of the Junior PPL**

**Himani and Hanayu - The Nishizawa twins trying to conquer the world**

**Yutoto - A dark blue Keronian working with the Nishizawa twins, genetically engineered to conquer the world**

**Neroko - Yutoto's younger sister, an adopted Pekoponian who thinks she's an alien, ironically part of the Junior PPL**

**Oblivion - Tech-savvy kid, also part of the Junior PPL**

**Staff Sergeant Zurere - Former space pirate, leader of the new platoon sent to conquer Earth, imprisoned by Kohizou**

**Senior Private Dokiki - Robot frog, tech officer, whereabouts unknown**

**Combat Medic Xuyiyi - Outsider, traditionalist, herbal specialist, whereabouts unknown**

**Recruit Pulala - Weapons specialist, youngest of the platoon, currently infiltrating Nishizawa Peach Group**

**Private First Class Latata - Deaf Keronian, currently imprisoned by Teri, kind of a nerd**

* * *

Latata,_ I have to ask you something._

It was early morning. After getting ready for school, Teri remembered an important question he wanted to ask the blue Keronian. He wrote it down in their green notebook and tapped Latata on the shoulder.

Latata turned his head and read the message. He wrote his own in response. _Yes?_

_What are the colors of the aliens in your platoon?_ wrote Teri.

_Well, there's me. I'm a beautiful blue color, as you can clearly tell._

Teri rolled his eyes. Latata was such a gloater.

_Staff Sergeant Zurere and New Recruit Pulala are both purple_, the frog continued._ Zurere's more of a dark violet, but Pulala's more of a softer purple._

Okay, thought Teri, as he read what Latata was writing. But who was the dark blue frog he had seen?

_Senior Private Dokiki is pink. Pink as a potato._

_What? That doesn't make any sense,_ Teri wrote.

_Really? Keron has some versions of potatoes that look very pink. What colors are the potatoes on Pekopon? Geez! Pekopon sure is weird._

_Our potatoes are usually gold or brown or red…_ Subconsciously, he shook his head to dismiss it. _…but that doesn't really matter right now!_

_Okay, okay._ Latata got back to the point. _The last one in our platoon, Combat Medic Xuyiyi, is grey._ _Grey for boring._ He thought a moment._ Does Pekopon have grey potatoes, too?_

_No, Latata… that doesn't really matter right now,_ Teri wrote again. Then he paused. _So, there aren't any Keronians in your guys' platoon who are dark blue?_

_No. Why?_

_Well, when I was at my cousins' mansion_—he scribbled out the word "mansion" and wrote "house" next to it before showing Latata the message—_I thought I saw a dark blue alien there._

_It might have not been a Keronian,_ Latata pointed out. _No… wait… come to think of it, I meant to ask YOU the same question! I think I saw the person you're talking about. How many Keronians ARE on Pekopon, anyway?_

_What? That's not possible,_ Teri wrote. How would Latata have seen anything? He thought again. Latata hadn't poked his head out of the backpack, had he? That would have been catastrophic…. _Latata, how did you see an alien?_

_By peeking out of your backpack, of course,_ wrote Latata.

Teri grimaced. _Anyway, Latata, we don't HAVE aliens on Earth. If we did then we wouldn't be calling guys like you aliens._

_No,_ Latata corrected him._ Pekopon has tons of aliens. You've heard of Alien Street, haven't you?_

_Do you EXPECT an ordinary Earthling like me to know about these things?_

Latata scratched his head and wrote, _No, I guess not. I'm not sure why I asked that._

Teri shrugged. _I'm not sure why you asked that, either._

_So you don't know how many Keronians are on Pekopon?_

_Probably just the rest of your platoon, _he told him._ You can't think of any reason why other Keronians would be on Earth, can you?_

He watched Latata ponder this question, but there was no answer. Finally he wrote: _I heard from Dokiki and Pulala once that there used to be another space invasion force that was sent to Pekopon. The Keroro Platoon._

The same struck Teri as vaguely familiar. He couldn't recall where he'd heard it before—maybe from Latata.

_Nobody knows where that platoon went,_ Latata continued._ I used to hear a bunch of rumors and theories myself, like the Pekoponians took them hostage, or they went on a separate mission and ended up missing. Or they DIED! Or one of them fell in love with a Pekoponian. Or they all went traitor. Oh—or they went into the hairstyling business and forgot about their invasion mission. Personally I think the last one is the most believable._

Teri nodded as he read Latata's response. Maybe the alien they both saw had something to do with the missing platoon. That would have made sense. Then he paused, and re-read the message. He squinted his eyes. There was something about the way Latata had phrased his message that confused Teri. "I heard from Dokiki and Pulala." "I used to hear a bunch of rumors and theories." However, Latata was _deaf_. But… maybe it was just his weird way of phrasing things. Teri wasn't so sure.

"Teriii!" he heard his mom call from downstairs.

"Oh!" Teri stood up. Latata looked up at him with curiosity, and Teri picked up their notebook to quickly scribble something down. _My mom just called. It's time for me to go to school. I have to leave now, okay? Hope's coming after school again today to tutor me, so keep yourself hidden!_

_Can I go to school with you?_ Latata scribbled back.

Teri didn't need to write a response. His expression that clearly said "no" was quite enough.

"Teri! You're going to be late!" his mom called again.

"Coming, mom!" He grabbed his school bag and slung it over his shoulder, then headed to the door of his bedroom. "Bye, Lata—" Teri stopped himself from finishing the sentence, reminding himself that Latata was Deaf. Reluctantly, he shut the door, Latata's eyes still trailing on him as the small crack showing the pink-haired Pekoponian grew smaller and smaller.

* * *

"How many tickets do you have?"

"I bought three."

"No way… will you _please_ sell me one?"

"Hahaha… only if you beg for it."

"You're awful!"

When Teri walked into his homeroom class, he was surprised to see how much chatter there was. It wasn't normal for them to be so lively on a Tuesday. Everyone knew Tuesdays were evil.

"So… what happened?" Teri asked Sosuke as he slid into his seat, putting his school bag beside him.

"You _seriously_ can't—" Sosuke shook his head. "Teri, you were here yesterday, too. Don't tell me you've forgotten already."

"Forgotten…. Forgotten what?" Teri scratched his cheek with his index finger as he tried to remember.

"The concert that everyone's been talking about. EternalForseVizard."

"The what now?"

He gave him a look. "The _idol_ group?"

Teri blinked, then smacked his fist into his palm. "Oh, of cooouuurse. They're the… uh… people that… uh…." He bit his lip.

Sosuke put his hand on his face. "Can someone explain to Teri what's been happening this past week?"

"I'll do it!" a girl volunteered. She stepped forth and seated herself at a desk in front of Teri. "EternalForseVizard is the idol group that's having a concert this Thursday. Just two days away!"

"I seriously don't remember hearing about this."

"Hush up and let me explain." She put her hand down on his desk fiercely. "It would make sense that you wouldn't remember them. Their concert last year was amazing! They became super popular." She glared at him slightly. "But you're a _boy_, so of course they wouldn't have made a lasting impression on you."

Oh. So, it was just some boy's band then. That made sense why most girls were talking about it. Teri nodded to show that he understood, but Aika continued explaining.

"There's Uncertainty—he's had _way_ more concerts than the other two since he's switched bands so many times—and there's Abstrusity…." Aika put her hands to her cheeks and squealed. "Ah, he's the one who gets all the ladies! He's so mysterious and alluring with that mask he wears.~ He's single, too. And then there's Eternity. He's the one who writes all the music for their group, I think."

"Suuuure." Teri didn't look like he believed her.

"Why only 'sure?' "

"Well, they're an idol group. Someone else probably writes their music for them. That's all I'm saying."

She pouted, as if taking personal offense at this comment. "That is _so_ not true! He's a masterful composer and lyricist."

"We can prove it, too," said one of the girl's friends. "He was a radio host for, like, half a year or so before he joined the idol group, wasn't he?"

"That was him?" asked the first girl.

"That was him." It was Merion who confirmed this; he had a bit of a frown as he leaned back in his desk by the window.

"Ahh… that's really cool!" she said. "But it's too bad that My Radio ended…. He has such a cool voice! Ah!" She clasped her hands together. "I'm so excited for the concert!"

"Where is it?" Teri asked curiously.

"Well, if you've been to the big concert venue in Tokyo's—Hey, wait." The girl slipped him a glower. "I know you may be interested in going, but the tickets sell was wild! And the few that are left are rather pricey."

"I'm _not_ interested in going." Teri leaned back and tucked his hands behind his head. "I don't particularly like idol groups. They're all fake, anyway. They don't write their own music and they probably mouth the music when they're onstage. They're just pretty faces basically that—"

"Hey, I heard that Hope's a fan," said Sosuke off-handedly.

Teri stood up. "Where can I buy tickets?"

The girl practically scoffed at him, and shut her eyes in annoyance. "You _can't_. Unless you're amazingly rich, which I highly doubt you are. The concert's in two days, anyway. So, if you really want to go that badly, then you better hope that a miracle is coming your way."

"Hey! Did I hear someone mention tickets to the EternalForseVizard concert?"

Speaking of things to hope for….

"Eh?" The girl turned to the person beside her—Hope was the name—who was holding up some tickets in her hand. "Where did you get those?"

"I stole them," Hope joked. The look in her eyes said _obviously._ She looked at Teri. "Do you want one, Teri?"

"What? Uh…." Teri wasn't sure what to say. So much for getting tickets himself and offering one to Hope. "Um… sure?" he finally answered.

"Great!" Hope smiled and handed one to him. Their hands made contact briefly, and he blushed. "Do you want another? Maybe your sister wants to come."

"Sister?" He looked up at her. "How did you know I had a sister?"

"Uh… you told me, remember?"

"No…." Teri scratched the back of his head.

She paused and handed him the second ticket anyway. "Well, maybe you just forgot. I'm sure she'd like to come. Go ask her or something."

Merion walked up to her. "How many tickets do you happen to have? 'Cause I'd love to come, too."

"Sorry, I don't have any left," said Hope with much regret as she slipped the other tickets back into her pocket.

"Ah… that's a shame." Merion looked slightly disappointed. "I'm sure there'll be other chances to get some."

"Merion… you could always go with me," said a student shyly. She twiddled her index fingers together. "Or, ah, there's someone else I have in mind that you could go with…."

_Please don't look at me. Please don't look at me,_ Teri wished.

She looked at him.

_NOOOOOO!_

Merion shook his head sternly at the girl, and then looked at Teri with dislike. Teri returned this expression.

"Believe it or not, but I have no intention of going _anywhere_ with Merion. Ever," he clarified. The student's lips peeled into a frown of disappointment. "A-actually…" He blushed. "H-Hope, since you're the one who gave me these tickets… I'll g—I mean, can I, no, c-could we go together?"

"Hm?" Hope's eyes shifted to him. "I guess you can come with me, yeah. Kind of like carpooling?"

"Uh… in a sense…." He rubbed the back of his neck. He liked the response, but at the same time, he didn't. In his mind, he imagined it to be more like:

_"Hope, come to the concert with me!"_

_"Oh, Teri! I'd love to!" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders._

And then they would arrive at venue in some sort of romantic hot air balloon and would have a great time in each other's presence.

Sadly, that was just a fantasy. Even sadder, they wouldn't be alone. He would have to take his little sister with him.

* * *

When Teri got home, he asked Girara if she wanted to come to the concert, but apparently her friend Oblivion had already given her tickets. Ohh what a great shame. So he went up to his room. Now that Hope was gone, he could take Latata out of his hiding place. He opened the large closet that he kept the Keronian hidden in, and then picked up the green notebook beside him to write him a message.

_Thanks for hiding away again today, Latata._ He flashed him a half-grateful smile.

Latata scribbled down a response. _You owe me for this, Pekoponian. I can't wait till we find the rest of my platoon. I would tell them all about the awful things you made me do when I was relying on you for assistance, if they knew Keronian Sign Language!_

_Right_, Teri wrote. _Well, at least you get free food._

_I think I can now easily say that I will never touch another sweet potato dish again after I'm set free from your household._

_Hey! There's nothing wrong with sweet potatoes!_ Teri defended.

_So many sweet potatoes._ A shiver ran through Latata.

Teri paused, and picked up the pen again. _Look. I'll be gone on Thursday night, so I need you to promise me that you won't cause any trouble in my absence._

Instead, Latata asked him, _Where will you be going?_

Hesitantly, he gave him the answer. _A concert. With Hope._

_Man, I LOVE concerts! Is it a rock concert?_

_No, I think it's pop._

_Oh. Well, pop's okay, too. Can I come?_

Teri frowned. _It's a concert, Latata._

_I know! I LOVE concerts!_

_You're Deaf, _ he reminded him.

Latata did not write a response, nor even pick up the pen. For a very long moment he sat there. Unmoving. Thinking about what Teri said. Trying to figure out how what kind of reply to give. He could think of only nothing but that.

Begrudgingly, Teri wrote something down instead. _Well, pop concerts usually have pretty good visuals. I guess you could always come if you hide in my bag or something as long as you make sure that no one sees you_

He didn't finish writing his sentence, because Latata snatched the pen away.

_Really?_ Latata asked. _That's great! Maybe you're not as bad as I thought you were, Pekoponian!_

Teri laughed nervously. That was probably supposed to be a compliment, most likely.

He really wanted to just stare Latata in the eye and tell him he owed him nothing, but he wasn't so sure about that anymore. Being an invader was just Latata's job that he was doing; it wasn't really his fault… not like he was coming close to succeeding, anyway. He and Teri had different views because of which side they were on, that was all.

Oddly enough, he really did feel that Latata was right: He did owe him a bit for imprisoning the guy and forcing him to hide all the time whenever anyone came into his room. It wouldn't hurt to let Latata out of the house every now and then to get some fresh air and to see new things… even if it meant having to sacrifice alone-time on a sort-of-date-though-not-really with the girl he liked.

He wondered why Latata hadn't just jumped through the window and walked away, if he really wanted to leave that badly.

He wondered this more than he wondered why he was so soft on the alien. He didn't really wonder _that_ at all.


	15. An Eternity of Pop

In two days, Teri met Hope in front of the concert venue. On his shoulder he carried a bag, where Latata was hidden. He hoped that the guy had some air to breathe… until he realized that it didn't matter, because Latata had stowed away before in things like Teri's school bag, and he hadn't suffocated.

"Teri?"

"Uh… yeah?" Teri looked at Hope.

"Do you have something on your mind?"

Silence. Teri was instead blushing, thinking how cute Hope looked in her outfit.

"Teri?"

"Um, yes," he replied.

"You do? What are you thinking about? Can you tell me, please?" she asked excitedly.

Teri just thought, _I wonder what I said yes to_. "Um, no. No, I cannot." What was he thinking about again? Was it worry for Latata, or was it about how cute Hope looked in her outfit for the concert? "It's a… a very secretive thing."

She giggled. "You don't have to be keeping secrets." She paused and reconsidered those words.

"Um, it's actually a very… very top secret thing. Yeah." For a moment he sounded sure of himself. Then he looked off to the side. "Well… um… I suppose if you really want to know what I was thinking about—"

"No, actually, you're right. You're entitled to your own private thoughts."

"Uh…? Okay…." That was weird, he thought. He was just going to compliment her on her dress. If she really didn't want to know what was on his mind then she didn't have to; he was totally fine with that option, too.

They stood there for an awkward moment. Hope rocked on her heels. Teri rubbed the back of his neck.

"So… you… um… like this band?" he finally asked.

"Oh! Yes. They're very talented. I know them personally."

"Then, uh, should we go in, do you think?"

"Oh, right." She giggled.

Dismissing the unpredictable antics of Hope, the two of them entered the venue together.

Teri looked around. "Nobody's here yet," he noticed. Odd, since there had been so many fans crowding around the entrance of the venue.

"Of course nobody's here yet," she said. "Opening performances start at ten. Why do you think I dragged you here an hour early?"

"Um, is that a rhetorical question or one I'm supposed to answer?"

"Hm, not sure. Anyway"—She pressed her hands together.—"do you want to meet the stars, or what?"

"Uh…." Teri casually pointed his finger at her. "Wait a second. Don't tell me that you're super rich, too. Is that how we got here so early?"

"Haha, no. I'm not super rich. I'm a freeloader!" She smiled at him brightly.

Teri, needless to say, became distracted by her smile. Then he snapped back to his senses. "Wait, you're a what?"

"Well, come on and meet them! We've got nothing better to do!" She grabbed his hand to drag him off.

Suddenly, Teri had second thoughts. This arrangement wasn't so bad after all. He let Hope lead him backstage (while getting to hold her hand—his heart soared!) to a trailor, which they entered to see three doors, presumably the three stars' dressing rooms. He looked about, wondering how the trailer could be larger on the inside than it was on the outside.

Hope pushed through a striped door first, one that read "Uncertainty" in large gold plating.

"Hello, Uncertainty!" she called with a grin.

"Ah, Hope!" As Uncertainty turned around to greet her, Teri took in his image. He was very strange-looking. His hair, for one thing: one side brushed up and one side down, dyed many different colors in assorted locations. Various tattoos were scattered over parts of his skin, and one of his ears was filled with piercings. He was wearing a stylized jacket, but only halfway. While half of it rested on his shoulder, the other half hung loosely from his body, as if he was in the middle of putting it on.

"Been a while since we've seen each other, Hope. Quite the performance on Phrygia."

"Why, thank you!" Hope fidgeted shyly. "That was a new record for me. Gone in three minutes. I'm still trying to beat it, you know." She touched the tip of her chin with the knuckle of her index finger. "My favorite part was when the debris crashed into Mixolydia and blocked out their sun for three weeks."

"Yes, that was pretty grand." Uncertainty turned his head to the side slightly. "I never did like the Phrygians. Or… maybe I did…."

Teri blinked at nothingness. They must have been talking in a foreign language, because he didn't understand a single word they were saying.

"Oh?" Uncertainty took his hand off his chin. "Who's your friend here, Hope?"

"This is Teri," she introduced. "And Teri, this is Uncertainty!"

"N-nice to meet you…" Teri waved meekly.

Uncertainty looked to Hope and frowned. "I don't think you can't bring fans backstage, Hope."

"Oh, don't worry. He's not a fan."

"…Oh."

"Uh, what I meant was a frie—"

"No, it's all right." Uncertainty waved his hand dismissively. "At least, I think it is. Hopefully we'll be able to change his mind, though." He looked at Teri and winked, and the two thirteen-year-olds left through the door.

The next room Teri was dragged into was a black door with some image on it that he could just barely make out the word "Abstrusity" from.

Once entering the room, they saw how dark it was. Abstrusity sat alone by his mirror, looking brooding. He wore the same jacket and overall attire as Uncertainty, except for a few differences. Over his face was a mask starting halfway up the back of his head, curving downward on his face till it ended with a point outward from his upper lip. Teri couldn't lie; this guy looked mysterious in every way. The shoulder-length black hair framing his face helped a lot. Teri could already feel himself trying to figure this guy out, that was how mysterious he looked.

"Hope." Abstrusity had sensed her presence before she'd even come in.

"Good evening."

"Properly, you should say 'good night.' " Even though he was merely correcting her, the way he placed the edge of his jaw against the back of his hand added a sort of coolness to his demeanor.

"Oh, okay. Anyway, Abstrusity, this is Teri, a friend of mine." She gestured to him from the side.

Abstrusity gazed at Teri, or maybe he didn't; Teri wasn't so sure with that mask and all. He breathed in and out, appearing to be pondering something. Teri didn't know what. Part of him wanted to know. Man, this guy was mysterious. Too bad he was just a bit character.

"He smells like a human," Abstrusity noted.

Hope glared at him. "Abstrusity! Don't be rude."

Teri sweat-dropped. Then he realized it—maybe this guy was a demon of some sort—a demon who wanted to eat him. Or what was worse, maybe he wasn't a demon. Maybe he was just a regular person who happened to be a cannibal. This thought horrified him.

"See what you've done now, Abstrusity? You've terrified Teri! He looks like he thinks you're going to eat him!"

"I wasn't thinking of doing that at all," Abstrusity assured them with his smooth voice. Teri calmed at once. This guy wasn't a cannibal; he was just a singer. Teri wasn't one to mix the two up, as he had seen so many others do before.

"It's very nice to meet you, Abtrusa…strusity." Teri bowed to him.

"Likewise." His expression, however, did not change. Perhaps the expression in his eyes changed, but Teri couldn't tell, since they were behind a mask and all.

"Okay, done here now." Hope smiled and took Teri by the hand again, leading him out of the room. Abstrusity's expression finally did change—when he saw Teri's side-bag move. Teri laughed nervously and punched the bag.

The next door she pushed through was light blue in color, with the plated word "Eternity" on the front. When the entered the dressing room, the person inside excitedly turned his head toward them.

"Well hello, Yutoto—" Eternity's expression fell. "Oh. It's just you, Hope."

"Haha, sorry," she laughed nervously.

"Next time, you should knock before you come in."

Eternity, like Abstrusity, had a very calming and smooth voice. He wore the same jacket, pants, and shoes as the other two, and his features looked a bit less flashy than theirs, other than his long, light blue hair. It reminded Teri a bit of Latata's skin, only less teal in color and more… what was the word… baby-blue. Over his ears were a set of headphones that he was equipped with. He had some strikingly green eyes, as well. He almost felt like he'd seen those green eyes somewhere before.

He glanced at Hope and her own green eyes. Nope. Definitely couldn't figure out where he'd seen 'em.

"Um, sure, I'll knock next time," Hope agreed.

"And who did you…" His eyes drifted off and landed on Teri, and suddenly, he looked surprised. "Teri?" Eternity laughed. "That's odd, I had no idea that you and Hope still—"

He was cut off when Hope started making hand signs. Pointing to Eternity. Sliding a finger against her throat. Clenching her fist. Smacking it against her sideways palm.

_I wonder if she knows a form of sign language, too,_ thought Teri. It probably wouldn't be Keronian Sign Language. Whatever she was communicating to Eternity must have been a solid language, though, because his expression changed immediately.

"Hahaha… well…." Eternity rubbed the back of his neck, which caused his long, blue hair to drift down the front of his shoulders. "It's nice to meet you, Teri. I hope that you'll enjoy the concert."

"Um… okay?" he said.

"We should go now," Hope broke in. "The concert's starting in forty-five minutes so we'd better leave you guys alone so you can get ready and stuff. Come on, Teri." She took him by the hand and led him outside of the room, much to his confusion.

"Well that was a bad idea…" he caught her mumbling as they left.

In the next forty-five minutes, there wasn't much else for Teri to do besides chat with Hope and wait for the concert to begin. Occasionally he made excuses to leave for the restroom or something when what he was actually doing was filling Latata in on why it was taking so long.

_It turned out that Hope brought me here early,_ he wrote to Latata.

_What? What will we do until then?_

_I don't know. Want to play Tetris on my phone?_

_Okay, sure,_ Latata answered. Teri handed him his phone with Tetris on it. But he had to break the guy's concentration for a moment to show him his next message. _Hope wanted me to meet some people._

_Who?_ asked Latata half-mindedly.

_The stars of this thing. Their names are Eternity, Uncertainty, and Abstrusity._

_Neat names!_ Latata commented. _I like how they all sound alike. Sounds a bit familiar, though. Are those their stage names? Or is it just a coincidence?_

_No idea, but that's not the point. Something gives me the feeling that these guys are aliens._

_Well, it could be possible. The universe is a bigger place than you think it is, Pekoponian._ Latata made a face. _Darn it, I lost! This is all thanks to you distracting me._

_Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time later on to bore yourself with Tetris,_ Teri assured him.

_What do you mean by "bore yourself?" This thing is the greatest! But your phone's so primitive. Geez._

Teri frowned at him, and then glanced back toward the venue. _Better wrap this up and put you back in the bag, Latata. It looks like they're letting the fans in and I'd better get my seat back before someone else steals it. And Hope got us such good seats, too._

_Okay. Hey, I can stick my head out of the bag once the lights are off, right?_ he asked.

_As long as you make sure that NO ONE sees you._

After showing Latata the response, Teri let him climb back inside the bag and tossed in the notebook, pen, and phone. He returned to where Hope was, looking completely inconspicuous.

"Did you have fun in the restroom?" asked Hope.

He gave her a strange look.

She giggled. "I'm just pulling your leg."

"Oh, okay, then."

He sat back down in the seat, and Hope sat next to him. Teri placed his bag with Latata in it by his ankles.

Already, it had only been about fifteen minutes now and seats already looked to be packed. Fans had other ideas. They stood up, around the seats. They sat under seats. Some of them even stuck to walls and ceilings. …He had no idea how that managed to work, but it did.

He was amazed at the music when the concert began. He could see now what people had meant—it was an idol group worth idolizing. The auditorium was pitch-black save for the lights that people held up, though not bright enough to illuminate Latata's image when he hesitantly let himself peek out of the bag. The lighting, background imagery, masterfully written music—it was all enthralling. The singers didn't even look like they were lip-syncing. Fans went wild. Teri understood why.

Hope was just as excited—shouting words of praise and encouragement and throwing her arms in the air— which was the most fun part to watch. Even though Latata was by his knees and thousands of other fans raved about, Teri felt at peace just watching her smile. He felt himself begin to smile.

While Latata wasn't watching, and Hope wasn't paying attention, Teri slipped his hand down his side and casually tried to reach for Hope's. When he did touch it, she glanced at him with those green eyes of hers, looking surprised. Teri quickly recoiled his hand and smiled nervously. It was a good thing it was too dark for her to see the blush on his face. Also a good thing that the fans around them were so loud, too, because his heart was thumping madly against his chest.

Feeling something tap at his knee, Teri looked down to see Latata, who was holding up his phone to him. On it was a text written: _Can you tell me what they're saying?_

Teri paused, and wrote, _Sure thing, Latata._

* * *

"Well, that was freakishly amazing."

Teri flopped down on his bed when he got home. He dropped his bag on the floor and Latata crawled out of it. He turned around and sat up on the mattress, then picked up the green notebook he used to communicate with Latata on the floor and wrote down a message.

_So, what did you think?_

Latata's response was blunt. _It wasn't all that great._

_Oh. I'm sorry. The visuals were pretty good, though._

_Yeah, they were okay, but I got bored after awhile._ Latata looked rather mopey.

Feeling guilty, Teri tried to cheer him up. _The fans were way too loud. It really hurt my ears at some point. Made it hard to hear the singers sometimes, too._

_At least you're able to hear those things._

Teri expelled a sigh as he thought about his next response. _No more concerts for you, huh?_

_Yeah. I think I'm done with them._ Latata wiped something from his eye.

Teri should have expected as much. Now, he didn't know what to do nor what to say—or rather, what to write. It was Latata who picked the pen back up.

_I always really wanted to be a musician before I went deaf,_ he wrote.

That explained his music symbol insignia, thought Teri.

He wondered what he could write to reassure him. That Ludwig van Beethoven was a deaf musician, maybe? No, Latata didn't know who that was. Teri really didn't know what to do now. There was really nothing to write; no words could cure this condition. So he reached forward and grasped Latata's hand tightly, looking him in the eye. Surprised, Latata looked back. The whites of his eyes took on a sort of red shade, though he looked as if he was calming now.

After a few more seconds, Teri let go of Latata's hand. He shut their green notebook and gave a wordless nod. Latata nodded back.

By the time Teri went to bed, it was already midnight and he was utterly sleepy. Latata had already conked out in the corner with the miniature bed Teri had made for him.

Teri tossed and turned. He was sleepy, yes, but he couldn't get to sleep. There was too much on his mind, like what Latata had written about. He hadn't always been Deaf. Teri wondered how recently his loss of hearing must have happened.

He thought about other things, too, like the three stars Hope introduced to them, and how odd they were. His mind drifted to Hope, who he had been watching for most of the concert instead of the actual concert part. She had been so excited… with her dazzling smile… and those alluring green eyes.

Just as Teri drifted off, it finally occurred to him where he had seen Eternity's eyes before.


	16. Dramatic Entrance

The next day, Teri woke up to find Latata playing with his family's three kittens.

_It's nice to see you're not so bummed out anymore,_ he wrote to him.

_Bummed out about… what?_ asked Latata. Teri didn't respond, for fear of upsetting him. Instead, Latata remembered, himself, and wrote it down. _Oh. The concert._

Teri let out a sigh. Whether it was one of relief or of defeat, he wasn't sure.

_Speaking of the concert, I've been thinking of something._

_Yeah?_ he wrote.

_I definitely feel like I've seen those idol boys before._ Latata quickly flipped back to all of their conversations from yesterday and copied one of Teri's messages. _Last night, you wrote "Something gives me the feeling that these guys are aliens." I should have recognized their names when you told them to me, but I was too distracted by your Tetris._

Teri lowered his eyebrows as he read the message.

_What did you say the name of their group was, Pekoponian?_

_I didn't,_ he wrote. _Didn't tell you, that is. At least, I don't recall ever telling you. But I think it's EternalForseVizard._

_Yup. That's what I thought,_ wrote Latata. Teri for some reason got a sinking feeling, though he couldn't place it. _They had a few concerts on Keron._

_Keron?_

_My planet, duh. Don't tell me you've already forgotten._

"Uhhh…" Teri swallowed. _Of course I haven't_.

_But anyway, yeah, those guys are DEFINITELY aliens now that I think about it. Dang it, I KNEW I saw those guys from somewhere. Now I know._

Teri cut him short. _No, they can't be aliens._

Latata, although he gave him a strange look, decided to ask why. _You bonkers, man? Or do you just not like to listen to what I tell you?_

_It's not that I don't want to believe you._ Teri clenched his fist, trying to loosen out his hand muscles from all this writing. _But last night, a thought had occurred to me right before I fell asleep. And it has to do with Hope._

Latata smirked. _Is it that you've got the hots for her? If so, rest assured—I'm already fully aware of that._

Blushing, Teri snatched the notebook out of his hands and continued writing. _No, Latata. Why Hope brought me there in the first place. She had tickets ahead of time. She probably didn't buy them. And the last idol she brought me to see—I could swear he had her eyes._

_HE STOLE HER EYES?_ Latata really did look concerned now.

_What gives you that idea? Geez, Latata, you'd be best friends with Yaoe. No, what I meant was I think they're related._

_Well, that can only mean one thing._ Latata grinned at him as he wrote. _Congratulations! You've just found out that your girlfriend is an alien._

Teri opened his mouth, about to pose a rebuttal—but he realized he had nothing. What if Hope really was an alien? It couldn't be possible, could it? There was only one way to find out for sure: He had to dig back to all the evidence in his memory of Hope acting suspicious and piece everything together.

…He couldn't remember a thing at the moment.

Come on, come on! Stop drawing a blank! he told himself as he beat his head furiously. Silently, Latata tried to place what these odd gestures could mean.

_Maybe it was a different idol group that you saw at those concerts on Keron,_ Teri suggested. _Like InternalForceInward. Or NocturnalHorseWizard. Do any of those names sound familiar?_

_Well, the second one maybe,_ wrote Latata, _but I'm PRETYY sure that the name of their group was EternalForseVizard. They had similar visuals, certainly. And they had sounded pretty cool! Then again, I wouldn't be able to compare how they sounded _then_ and how they sound _now.

Teri paused. _Wait a second. I'm confused. How long ago did you go to this concert on Keron, Latata?_

_Uh… IDK,_ he wrote.

_Latata._ Teri leaned in a bit, looking him in the eye, and posed the question that had been eating away at him for the last few days. _When was it exactly that you lost your hearing?_

Latata gazed back at him with a flabbergasted expression. Teri bit his lip. Maybe touching on a sensitive subject wasn't the best of ideas.

_You want me to tell you how I lost my hearing?_

It was a simple question, one that could have meant anything, but there was only one tone that Teri placed to it. Shock.

_Well, all right,_ Latata wrote.

Huh? thought Teri.

_You see_—Latata had a determined look on his face. There was no going back now; it was story-time.

Teri's eyes wandered off to the side. He really did need to get to school soon, or else he would be late.

—_it was back when I had recently joined the Zurere Platoon… perhaps a few months afterward._

The ground started shaking. That was… odd?

_And there's just one particular person who I have to thank for it._

The shaking in the ground was becoming more prominent now. Still, Teri watched with intent as he wrote.

_Her name happens to be_—

The walls crashed down. Three people equipped with a giant robot suit had broken through the front wall of his room. His cousins were two of them. Teri became horrified as he trained his eyes on the third figure, a purple-skinned tadpole creature who was unmistakably Keronian.

"New Recruit Pulala has come to save the day!"

* * *

Teri and Latata both gaped in shock.

So did Pulala.

"L-_Latata_?"

Teri pushed her aside. "A-another alien?!" he shouted. "And—my room," he squeaked miserably. "Destroyed…."

Hanayu placed her hands on her elbows. "Yeah, we were talking over how to make the most dramatic entrance for a while. Then we decided a giant robot would work best."

"What were you—What were you even _thinking_?!" he yelled at them.

Latata scribbled something down on the page of the notebook in very large text for all to see and then held it up. _Hi, Pulala! Great timing! Teri and I were just in the middle of a conversation when you interrupted! Gee, thanks!_

He was out of luck—Pulala didn't see the message, nor did Teri seem to care for the fact that they had been in the middle of that conversation, though it was more likely that he had suddenly forgotten. Teri was too absorbed in his anger. Walking over to Pulala, he picked her up by the head. His eyes narrowed as he stared at her. "Who are you? Another Keronian?"

He expected her to freak out. Teri gave some pretty good death-glares, and he certainly had the advantage of height. Instead, this purple Keronian—Pulala—ever-so-calmly materialized a gun and pointed it right at his forearm.

"That isn't a very wise way to treat an alien loaded with an infinite arsenal of weapons you probably have never even seen before," she warned him with a lax attitude. Teri dropped her to the ground and put his hands on his hips.

"Teri can fight you!" Hanayu shouted.

"Yeah! Wait…." Himani paused. "We don't really want you two to fight, though." He folded his hands over his chest. "Instead, we came here for the Keronian you've been hiding."

"K-Keronian?" Teri gulped. He should have guessed that they came for Latata. Latata, meanwhile, threw the notebook onto the ground in his frustration and began to jump about, as if to ask, "WILL SOMEBODY _PLEASE_ TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"Right… your Keronian…." Pulala laughed nervously and glanced at Latata. "The Nishizawas here filled me in on the Keronian you were hiding, so we came to your residence. But…" She rubbed her arm awkwardly. "…I didn't expect for it to be _Latata_."

Latata shrugged and bounded up to her so he could shake her hand. Despite his initial anger at how she interrupted him, he began to look a bit forgiving—probably since she was a friendly face, no doubt. Swiftly, he began accounting to her his experiences with Teri through Keronian Sign Language.

"Ah—um—" Pulala attempted to reply, but pitifully. She gave up with a sigh. "He signs way too fast for me to catch up with what he's trying to say."

Teri opened his mouth, about to suggest that she could borrow their green notebook, but he had second thoughts. There were other more important things at the moment. His eyes went to Hanayu and Himani, who trembled under his gaze.

"_You two_," he said, glaring.

"S-sorry, Teri!"

"We just saw that you had a Keronian in your bag and realized that a new invasion squad must have come to Earth!"

"And then we realized that we could find one of them ourselves to help us invade!"

"Yeah!"

"I don't have _time_ for this! I have to go to school soon!" Teri insisted.

"Sorry… should we have waited till you came home?"

"_Yes!_—I mean—no!" He grabbed his hair. "What were you even thinking?! How did you even—I don't believe this!"

Pulala grinned. "Who knew that the grandchildren of Pekopon's richest businessman were also looking to conquer the planet! The three of us make quite the team, don't you think?"

He hated to admit it, but the three of them _did_ look quite fitting together….

Teri shook his head, dismissing the thought. "Are you two crazy?! What was going on in your head, you two? She—She and Latata—they're aliens!"

"So?" asked Himani. "We want the planet!"

"How can you be so calm about this? This is serious business!" He touched his head in frustration. "What—What if someone saw you when you rampaged out here with your… giant robot thing?!" He was sputtering as he spoke, unsure of how to enunciate it so that these eleven-year-olds might get the bigger picture.

"Nobody saw us," Hanayu assured him. "Didn't your Keronian—What did you say his name was, Pulala?"

"Latata."

"Right.—Didn't Latata tell you about Keronian anti-barriers?"

Teri furrowed his brow. "Well, yes. But they don't work on humans. Or anything on Earth, I think."

"No, they work on humans," said Hanayu.

Himani tucked his hands behind his head. "They just don't work on _us_ is all!"

"Really?" Teri's eyes widened slightly.

Latata's did, too—in frustration. He jumped about, trying to get everyone's attention. What were they saying _now_?

"Good. I don't want any other humans to see the mess you've made." With an exasperated sigh, Teri walked to the door and placed his hand on the knob. After a second he took his hand off the knob again and sat against the wall, leaning his head back until it thunked against it. "I…. I don't have time for this, you guys. I have to be going to school soon."

Hanayu and Himani frowned. This really wasn't going as planned.

"But, Teri—"

"_No_. I'm not going to deal with this crazy alien business right now." He shot a glare at Pulala, then looked back at his younger cousins.

"You two better fix this awful hole in my wall when I'm gone. You got that? And you better consider yourselves lucky that my parents aren't home right now, because knowing them, they'd probably kill you two!"

The twins _did_ look sort of afraid now.

"W-we'll repair it in time. You'll see. We'll gather a crew of the best architects in the country, and no one will ever have to know that there was a giant robot that smashed through the side of your house!"

"And when I come back, I want you to explain _everything_ to me." Teri's eyes narrowed. "Everything. You better have a darned good explanation for all of this. I'll meet the three of you back here in my room, but take your stupid bulldozing-robot out of the yard. And don't you _dare_ let those two frogs wreck havoc while I'm gone." He stood up and brushed some rubble off his pant legs. Thinking twice, he grabbed a confused Latata from off the ground. "Actually, I'll be going now, and I'm taking Latata with me. Good day."

The words were polite, but his tone was fierce. It sent a shiver up his younger cousins' spines. With that, Teri left the room, shutting the door like he had just had the final word in an argument and it felt so sweet but yet so unsettling.

Teri bit back his frustration and hurried out of the house. He hated all this alien stuff. And for them to destroy his room like that… how rude! With a sigh, Teri tried to calm himself. Honestly, these days he expected no less from the Nishizawa duo.

The further he got to the school, the more he realized he going to be late for class. Slowing, Teri placed his hand against the wall of a building and took off his backpack to explain a few things to Latata. Immediately, the teal Keronian handed him the green notebook they used to communicate. Teri flipped open to the latest page that read:

_Of all days for you to willingly bring me to school with you, why today when Pulala's come back?_

Teri wrote the response of, _You think I have time to deal with aliens right now? I'm late for school! We'll have to sort everything out when I get back home,_ and he handed the notebook back to him. After Latata read the message, he curled up in the backpack and folded his arms in a sulking manner. It would be a boring day for him, but Teri was sure it had been boring the previous times he'd stowed away, too.


	17. Do Aliens Exist?

Pekoponian school was always sort of an awkward place for kids like Girara, Kohizou, and Neroko.

"All right, everyone!" said Kohizou and Neroko's Social Studies teacher with a smile on her face. "You're all in the third grade so that means you'll be learning how to debate this week. Today, I have a _fun_ prompt for all of us to debate about! The topic is, 'Aliens Do Not Exist.' Go to the left side of the room if you agree. If you disagree, please go to the right."

Neroko and Kohizou exchanged a look with each other amid the other children moving around in the classroom.

"What should we do, Neroko?" Kohizou asked her, scratching the back of his arm. "I don't have a good feeling about this…. H-hey! Where are you going? Are you even listening to me?"

Neroko was going to the right side of the room, that was where. She pumped her fist into the air. "Aliensssss!"

Kohizou hung his head and crossed to the other side of the room. "I'm sorry, Neroko, but I can't agree with your viewpoint."

Neroko, to say the least, looked a bit confused.

When all the rest of their classmates had settled into place, their teacher examined the equally divided classroom and nodded to herself. "All right. Good, good…. Now that you've all taken a stance, who would like to speak first, and share why they agree or disagree with the topic?"

Crickets.

Finally, one kid on the left side of the classroom timidly rose her hand.

The teacher pointed to her. "Yes, Hanako?"

"Well, I… I…." Hanako played with her hands, timid because she spoke with a lisp. "I don't know if aliens could exist, I mean, it might be possible, but I just don't know."

"I see. Well, thank you very much for sharing, Hanako."

Hanako nodded and then sat back down.

"Would anyone else on this side like to go?"

Nobody answered, so the teacher picked someone herself.

"Kohizou. Why don't you tell us why you chose to side with the viewpoint, 'Aliens Do Not Exist?' "

"Ummmmm…." Kohizou became very silent, especially now that Neroko was eyeing him deviously. "I don't really… I don't…. I mean…. I guess I don't know, either."

"Really?" asked the teacher with a sigh.

"Yeah."

"I mean, I don't think they exist at _all_."

"Why is that?" said the teacher.

"Well… um…. It doesn't seem possible."

"Yeah! The movies make up a bunch of stuff," a girl on his side put in, gesturing with her hands. "They do it just so that they can make money to buy stuff with."

"You think so?" the teacher said. "Does anyone have a rebuttal?"

"What's a reb—"

"A rebuttal," she explained, "is the argument you would give in response."

"I have a beruttal." One kid on the right side of the room rose his hand. "I think that aliens exist because they are in charge of the governmental corruption."

"Aliens can't do that," Kohizou broke in. "I—I mean, I'm sure they _could_, but some just don't really do anything at all—" Realizing his mistake, he clasped his hands over his mouth.

"Hah! So you _do_ think aliens exist!" Neroko shouted at him from across the room.

"That's not what I said! It's…. It's not what I meant. I meant that if aliens _did_ exist, which they don't, that's what would happen." He narrowed his eyes. "Neroko, you of all people should know tha—"

"Well _I_ think Kohizou's wrong, and I think that aliens exist because they keep other aliens, the bad kind, from coming to Pekopon."

"And… what's Pekopon?" asked their teacher.

Slowly, she grinned. "Most Pekoponians don't know that Pekopon is actually—"

"Neroko's favorite TV show!" Kohizou cut off with a nervous laugh. "You know. Gotta catch 'em all." He glared at her from across the room and mouthed, What do you think you're doing? but to Neroko it just looked like he was mouthing, Woo wee woo.

She became infuriated.

"Kohizou's lying!" she insisted. "Pokémon's not my favorite TV show! It's not even close!"

"How could you hate Pokémon?" one kid on the other side of the room asked.

"Because it sucks!"

"Don't say that! The sentimental aesthetics of the show can be quite appealing to many," someone put out.

"Well _I_ don't like Pokémon because—"

"Everyone!" the teacher broke in. "Please! Wrong topic. Please!" She brushed her hands through her bangs, tucking them back behind her ears. "Can we get back on track now?"

"Oh yeah."

"Aliens are totally real and Kohizou's lying that they aren't," Neroko claimed. She gave him a challenging look. "He's lying because he's a wimp and he's afraid to agree with me. He's scared."

"I'm not lying. I—" Kohizou was cut off by a boy next to him.

"If you think aliens are real, then why don't you prove it?"

"I can and I will!" she retorted.

Kohizou gasped.

Neroko grabbed her shirt and ripped it off to reveal a skin-tight green suit.

"_I_ am an alien!"

Kohizou face-palmed. Whatdidsheeventhinkshewasdoing.

Everyone looked at her a moment. Then they all laughed. Even the teacher giggled a bit.

"Neroko, you're just acting silly," Kohizou told her. Then he leaned in and whispered, "You need to put your shirt back on!"

"_You_ need put your shirt back on!" She tossed her shirt at him.

"I will." He held it up over his head a second, then paused. "No, I won't." He tossed it back to her. "It's your shirt."

"No give-backs!" She threw it back at him.

"This isn't recess, Neroko! You can't do that!"

"Uh, yes she can," the boy next to him pointed out matter-of-factly.

They both looked at Kohizou, waiting for him to put on Neroko's shirt. Frowning, he begrudgingly complied. After all, the rules of no give-backs were solid; as a ninja he knew this was truth.

Everyone in the room paused their laughter at Neroko momentarily to start laughing at Kohizou.

"Can we stop doing this debate?" he pleaded.

"Well… it _is_ getting rather out-of-hand…." Their teacher put a finger to her chin.

There were whines and groans in the room.

"If all of you want to keep going with it, you're going to have to do some talking yourselves, though!" she warned. "Now, let's start again from the left side of the room. Ah… Eri, why do you agree with the topic, 'Aliens Do Not Exist?' "

"Um… I agree with the topic because if aliens existed, they would come to Earth and invade us, and Earth isn't invaded yet so aliens don't exist."

"How do you know it isn't invaded already?" Neroko challenged.

She made a darn good point.

"Um, because aliens don't _exist_."

…Then again, Eri also had pretty amazing logic.

"Well, I think that wraps up our debate today," said the teacher in exasperation. "Everyone, you may return to your seats now."

Some kids groaned. Others grinned. Neroko shot an angry glance in Kohizou's way before sitting down.

"Thank you, everyone. I'm going to use the restroom now," said the teacher. Then she slithered away like the alien she was.

* * *

"Neroko, that didn't happen!" Kohizou told her.

"What?" Neroko stared him in the eye. "Yes it did, it totally did, you just didn't _see_ it."

"I see… so that's why your Social Studies teacher always wears a really long skirt," Girara put together. Since it was recess, kids from second and third grade had been let out. Her two friends had just relayed the story of the debate to her to explain Girara's confusion when she saw that Kohizou was wearing Neroko's shirt. She still didn't fully understand why, because they had sort of skipped that part, but it probably wasn't all that important.

"Neroko, why did you tell them that aliens exist?" she asked her friend.

"Um, because they _do_," said Neroko. "Did you want me to lie? I couldn't do that! _I'm_ an alien!"

Kohizou and Girara both knew this full well. Neroko had two alien parents; Girara and Kohizou only had one each. It only made sense that Neroko would be an alien too, although… she sure didn't _look_ like one, nor did her brother Yutoto look anything like her. In fact, her black hair and black eyes easily made her blend in with all the other kids her age that didn't have unnatural hair colors to signify that they were relevant characters.

"Neroko…." Girara thought a moment. "As members of the Junior Pekopon Protection League, we have to make sure that no Pekoponians know about aliens. If they did, then they would find everyone and take them to the men in black."

"No they wouldn't," she stated, "because the _other_ Pekopon Protection League is funded by the Nishizawa Corps."

"Oh, yeah," Girara said. She became silent for a moment. "But you still can't go around talking about aliens."

Neroko made a disgruntled sound and slumped her shoulders forward. Kohizou gave her a pat on the back. She'd survive. Maybe.

"By the way, um… speaking of aliens, Kohizou, how is that space pirate doing?" Girara asked. "What was his name again… Zeroro?"

"Zurere," Kohizou corrected with a laugh. "He's doing okay, I guess…. I talk to him a bit sometimes to make sure that he doesn't get too bored, but for some reason I feel that he doesn't really like to talk to me. I've been cooking food for him and giving him water, and doing everything to make sure he doesn't escape! And my parents don't suspected a thing." He placed a finger to his chin. "I wonder why he doesn't like me, though…."

* * *

_The Captain's Log, Day 8_

_I have survived a week of my capture. I can never say enough how thankful I am that the rest of my platoon remains unaware of my pathetic state as a Prisoner of War here on this frog-forsaken planet._

_The Pekoponian child Kohizou continues to torment me with questions each day, most of which I have made clear several times I cannot answer either due to the classification of information or simply because I do not choose to grace him with an answer. After all, he is the one at fault for my capture. He is the one who has trapped me here._

_The cellar I am caged within seems disappointingly primitive. I expected Pekoponian technology to be such, but this is just a level of embarrassment. At the same time, however, I find that I cannot leave, open as the windows in the room may be. Whatever strange force the Pekoponian child has used to trap me here, it is working, and I am not pleased._

_Often I wonder how the rest of my platoon is faring at a time like this. Dokiki and Pulala both have stopped sending me messages, and I am suffering from their neglect. Latata is a POW just as I am, that I am sure of; but the others I worry for, Xuyiyi especially. As unaccustomed he is to normal Keronian culture, Pekopon must be a shock to him, and if he hasn't hidden himself away, then I cannot expect much from him._

_The one thing I can be mildly thankful for during this dreadful time of imprisonment is the Pekoponian food that I am allowed to consume. The boy claims that he cooks it himself; whatever the force he has used to trap me here, I can only conclude that it must be in the victuals. It is working, and I am not pleased._

_End of entry 8_

* * *

"Maybe… you should give him a card," said Girara after thinking a moment. "You know. To show him that it's nothing personal and so he shouldn't be angry at you."

"Hm." Kohizou thought about this for a moment. "I think I will do that. Thank you, Girara! You always have the nicest ideas."

Girara giggled and smiled at him. Kohizou smiled back for a very long while.

Neroko looked between her two friends, feeling like she was the one left out for once.

She gave Kohizou a small push on the back. "Just write the card already."

Unfortunately, she pushed him a bit too hard, and he fell onto Girara, hurting them both. When the two of them sat up, they were glaring at Neroko.

"Ummm…." She looked off to the side, not long before darting off. "You're It!"

* * *

"Here."

Later that day, Zurere looked down at the small, folded paper in his hand that Kohizou had given him.

"What is this supposed to be?"

"It's a card," Kohizou explained with a smile. "For you. To make you feel better about being my prisoner."

Zurere winced at the word. The boy could have at least had the decency to switch to a different term.

Nevertheless, he set aside his pipe and decided to open the card. Knowing Pekoponians, and knowing this strange kid, any number of death traps could have sprung out at him.

Instead, all he saw were colorful drawings of pirates and neat little letters spelling out small messages such as:

_You're a really cool guy, Mister Zurere!_

_I'm really sorry that I have to keep you here because I know you really want to invade!_

_There are things that I need to protect on Pekopon, and I bet that there are things you want to protect too._

_Someday I hope that we can protect both those things at once without hurting each other!_

_So bear with me please!_

After reading the entirety of the card, Zurere set it down with a sigh. "You don't know what you're saying, kid."

"Yes, I do." Kohizou nodded, sure of himself.

"Look, you don't know anything about me… and there's no use keeping me here, so why don't you just let me go right now?"

"I can't do that," said Kohizou. "I don't know what you'll do if I let you go. You might invade, and that might hurt what I need to protect."

Zurere didn't really care to ask, so he didn't know what came over him when he did. "And… what is that?"

"Family, friends, and the planet," he recited. "Those three things always come first. That's what Dad always says."

"Peh. I was never into that sappy philosophy stuff," said Zurere.

"I'm sorry that we don't quite see eye-to-eye, then." Kohizou stood up, looking sad but still a bit hopeful, and shut the panel on the wall that he used to enter and exit the cellar.

Once the boy was gone, Zurere took one last look at the card before scoffing and tossing it to the corner.


	18. Did You Forget Something?

Focusing in school was a thing of the past for Teri.

First he was failing. Then Hope happened. After his grades improved a bit, he started losing focus again. _Now_ he had other things on his mind—like aliens. Right now, there were bigger things going on at the moment than worrying about the fact that he'd arrived late to school.

In his brown notebook, Teri wrote about the events of the day instead of taking notes on the lecture his teacher was giving. His mind was in other places, anyway, so trying to pay attention wouldn't have done him any good.

He really hoped that Himani and Hanayu were working on that gaping hole in his bedroom wall. What would his parents say when they got home? What if they saw Pulala and Latata? …No, they wouldn't, Teri decided. Pulala had specified that humans _couldn't_ see through their anti-barriers, or whatever they were called.

At the moment, one problem was taken care of—Latata was in his school bag. He felt a bit sorry that the guy didn't have a clue what was going on, but Teri would be able to fill him in on everything later. Geez, did he need to get back home…. If only he had some excuse to leave school.

An alarm system broke him away from his thoughts, and students began to shout.

"EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE SCHOOL! THERE'S A FIRE!"

_Excuse detected!_ thought Teri. As students evacuated, he high-tailed it back home. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he had left something at school. Something important….

* * *

When Teri came home, the first thing he saw was that the hole in the wall hadn't been fixed. The construction equipment hadn't even arrived yet. Teri frowned and made his way into the house then up the stairs, prepared to give those twins a yellin'.

Hanayu leapt up from the ground when she heard the door open. "Teri's back!"

"Look alive, people!" Pulala commanded. "We have to make a good impression after this morning!"

"You guys, I can hear you."

Everyone sweat-dropped.

With a sigh, Teri slipped off his bag and was about to toss it onto his bed when it began to squirm. He unfastened the top and Latata poked his head out. Teri had almost—no, he _had_ forgotten the Keronian was in there. He set Latata on the ground and took a breath before facing his cousins.

"Great to see that you've been working on that hole," said Teri with extra sarcasm and a side of disappointment.

"Erm… well, we didn't think that you'd be back so soon…."

"Yeah. Fire at school today." He lowered his eyebrows. "Now that we're back… uh… do you think you can explain what's going on to Latata?"

Himani and Hanayu exchanged a look of confusion. "Nobody told him yet? …Wasn't he in the room this morning, though?"

Pulala frowned, but she gave a nod to Teri and tried her best to make the hand signs. She was really slow at it, but after a few long minutes, Latata seemed to get the message.

"Great," said Teri. "Now that that's taken care of, why don't you fill _me_ in? Like—_why_ didn't you fix the hole yet?"

"Well…." Hanayu and Himani looked at each other. "We kind of sort of realized that Pulala might have been discovered by the repairmen… and we didn't really want that."

"Yeah!"

"Fantastic." He frowned at them. "Now tell me, why are you guys even here in the first place?"

"We need your Keronian," Hanayu explained.

"Obvious why—You know, to complete my platoon and all," said Pulala.

Himani broke in. "And invade the planet!" He paused. "…You're okay with that, right? That's why you kept him hidden from the Pekopon Protection League."

Teri couldn't believe his cousins were siding with invaders. This was exactly the crazy alien business he'd been wanting to avoid.

"What are you talking about?" he asked them. "What 'Pekopon Protection League?' I'm not letting Latata return to his platoon. Look, you two. Latata doesn't know this, but I wanted to find and capture them. He's an invader." His eyes shifted to Pulala. "All of you are. And I can't let any of you—even you, Hanayu and Himani!—invade Earth."

Himani tucked his hands in his pockets and kicked a piece of rubble that had fallen from the gape in Teri's wall. "Gross. You're starting to sound like Aunt Natsumi."

Teri gave him a weird look, but decided to ignore the comment as well as its connotations. "What I'm saying is that we can't let these guys invade!" He glanced at Pulala. "How did you find her, anyway? Latata and I have been looking _everywhere_ for the rest of his platoon."

"So…" Hanayu made a face. "…evidently Pulala here was trying to infiltrate the NPG for a couple of weeks. It wasn't actually that hard to find her, once we knew what we were looking for."

The purple Keronian laughed a bit. "Can you imagine my surprise when they kidnapped me and demanded that I assist them in their own conquests? I mean, how convenient it that?"

"Wait—wait—wait, hold up," Teri interrupted. "How did you know that Latata was here?"

Hanayu's eyes met with Latata's.

"Remember when you came by the mansion and everything was all broken and stuff?"

Teri was silent. He looked off to the side. No, he didn't remember.

"Well… that was when. I saw him peek out of your backpack. That was just shortly before we found Pulala."

"Oh…." Teri bit his lip. He glared at Latata. "Latata, how could you be so careless!" he shouted, even though Latata wouldn't have heard him. The teal frog just gave him a strange look.

"Right." Himani smiled brightly. "And now that we have another invader on our side, all we have to do is take your Keronian and find the rest of their platoon!"

There was a strained silence.

"Um, actually…." Pulala gave a nervous laugh as she pointed something out. "Latata won't be of much help."

The twins looked devastated.

"Well—don't look at me to blame!" She folded her arms. "You didn't tell me _which_ member of my platoon was in that bag. You just said that it was one of them."

"We didn't know he'd be useless!" Himani protested. "What's so useless about him, anyway?"

"He's annoying," said Teri.

"Yeah, that too," said Pulala. "But without any of our battle equipment, not to mention his hearing aids—"

"Hearing aids?" asked Hanayu.

"Yes, he's Deaf," said Pulala.

"Really?"

"Yes. That's why he was signing things to Pulala. Didn't you see?"

They were silent, then looked at Latata, who still had no idea what was going on now.

"Hold on a moment, Pekoponian… Teri, was your name? How long have you been keeping Latata?" asked Pulala as she gazed at him.

"Um… a few weeks, I'd say."

She stood back, inhaling in awe. "Amazing. You've been able to tolerate him that long?"

"Well… sort of. I mean…" Teri reached into his bag and held up the green notebook, which he gave a wiggle. "…we've found a way to communicate."

"It's your notebook!" Hanayu gasped.

Speaking of notebooks, Teri could've sworn that he might have possibly been thinking something important about that a few minutes ago, perhaps…. But oh well.

Pulala swiped the notebook out from Teri's hand and flipped through it. "And—and this is how you two communicate? …Ah, that's rather clever. I've still been struggling to learn the basics of KSL, so trying to understand what Latata's saying has been pretty tough as of late…." She frowned. "Geez, this thing is _filled_ with text. You talk too much, Pekoponian."

"Actually, that was Latata doing the droning."

"It figures." She handed the notebook back to him. "Some people have way too much to say. I've started ignoring his messages to me on our communicators recently because everything he was writing about was so irrelevant to our mission, 95% of the time."

"Communicators?" Teri glanced toward Latata. "And all this time I had thought he was just playing Tetris on my phone…." He frowned.

"Well. But." Pulala folded her hands laxly and stretched them behind her back with a grin. "Now that I think about it, I guess it _is_ a bit of a good thing that we know where Latata is. I've barely gotten any word from our other members!"

"Good." Teri nodded resolutely, looking extremely angry. "The less of a chance you have to invade, the better. And you two." He glared at Hanayu and Himani. "You can forget about all that while you repair this hole. There's no _way_ you're going to conquer the planet, anyway."

Himani put his hands on his hips. "Is that a challenge?"

"No, it's an warning." Teri cracked his knuckles. "You don't wanna know what I'd do to you if you tried."

Himani paled, but his protective sister Hanayu stepped in front of him.

"Teri, you have nothing to worry about," she promised.

Her brother breathed out a sigh of relief. He loved it when Hanayu lied for him.

"Whenever Himani tries to invade, he always ends up failing!"

Wait a second… that wasn't lying….

Pulala giggled a bit and stole a glance at him. Himani's face flushed red.

"So, I can assure you, Teri, that—"

Himani clamped a hand over her mouth. "You can just shut up now, okay?"

"Mmrphh!" she protested.

Teri smirked. "Fine. Thanks, Hanayu. Just promise me that you won't be hanging out with any more aliens after this, all right?"

Himani slowly withdrew his hand from Hanayu's mouth. They both gawked at him rather strangely.

"Uh, Teri?" Hanayu asked.

Teri looked at them, unable to place why Hanayu sounded so confused. "…Yes?" He drew out the word, sounding rather uncertain himself.

"It's…" Her eyebrows met together. "…kind of weird when you say it like that. I mean… maybe I'm wrong, but it almost sounds like you don't even acknowledge that your own family—"

Her words were cut short as someone opened the front door downstairs and called out.

"_Teeeeriiiii!_"

Teri paled. He recognized that voice… but he wished that he didn't.

"Who's that?" asked Himani.

"Oh god, oh god." Teri covered his face with his hand. "It's Hope. She's a friend from school." He was silent for a moment as the gears turned in his head. "Oh god! School. Tutoring! I should have talked to her about that! No wonder that Hope came looking for me."

"_Teeeeeeriiiiiii!_" she called again from downstairs. "_Are you in here?_"

"_Give me just one second!_" he called back. "Okay. I'm just going to go downstairs and quickly explain to her that I can't do tutoring today, and then everything will be—"

"Teeeeriiii!" The voice was coming closer now. It dawned on him. She was in his house, probably walking up the stairs. "I think you forgot this at school, so I just wanted to bring it back!"

The door swung open and Hope entered the room with Teri's notebook in her hand.

"Don't worry, I didn't look in it! Don't forget it again, okay?"

He just gaped at her, still too in shock to say anything or even thank her.

After giving it to him, she turned around and exited the room without noticing a thing.

Everyone released their breaths.

The door opened back up. "Hey, by the way, why was there a giant robot outside of your—" She paused. "—house…."

Finally—all Teri could do was watch—she began to take in the sight before her.

A hole in the wall, framing the figure of a mechanical robot machine. Two blue-haired twins standing beside it, with a purple Keronian before them. Another Keronian, a teal one, off to the side, still looking like he had no idea what was going on.

Teri dropped the notebook.


	19. Teri Gets Stupider Each Day

"What…. What is this?"

Hope's eyes drifted everywhere in the room as she pieced the sight together. Teri could feel his heart thumping against his chest, not from the usual thing, but from distress at what had just happened. Hope. Walking in on the scene of crime—his cousins crashing through the side of his house with an alien. And another alien by his own side.

But Hanayu's voice rang through his head. The anti-barriers—_They work on humans_. So there was no need to frighten himself, because it was impossible for a Pekoponian to see past their alien technology—

—Precisely why she did.

"No way!" Hope shouted. She went to the Keronian closest to her, Pulala, and bent down. "You don't happen to be one of the Keronians in that ship that crashed, do you?"

"H-how did you know?" asked Pulala, looking quite shocked.

"Ah!" Hope clasped her hands together and shut her eyes. "That's great!"

Himani folded his arms. "How awful of you to say," he criticized her.

"Haha, that's not what I meant." She giggled. "I've been looking _everywhere_ for you guys."

What? thought Teri. Hope knew of aliens? That could only mean….

His eyes widened.

"I am so, so sorry!" All of a sudden, Hope began bowing to Pulala. "I had no idea that there was a space ship where that meteor was heading. It was a complete accident. I'm so sorry!" she said again. "I didn't mean to hit anyone this time!"

"Oh, well if it was an accident…." Pulala smiled rather forgivingly. That smile quickly faded. "Wait—'this time?' Wait—that was _your_ fault that our ship crashed?"

Hope nodded and nervously pet one of her twin-tails that she had brought over her shoulder. "And I'm so sorry about that!" Then she turned to Teri, who jolted instantly when she set her gaze on him. "Teri! You really should have told me that you knew where one of the Keronians were." She wiggled a finger at him. "And don't think that you can get this past me, because I realize now what all of that strange behavior was about."

Teri's stomach practically leapt to his throat.

"Really, were you acting strange! I _knew_ it had something to do with aliens! This explains everything." She let out a sigh, looking happy at last that she'd figured it out.

There was only one problem, and it was a problem that Teri was well aware of. Only about a quarter of his strange behavior owed to Latata. The other three quarters… well…. He clasped his fingers together and decided to play along. "You're right, Hope. It's because I was hiding an alien all this time." He trailed off, then gaped. "Wait, Hope…. YOU'RE AN ALIEN, TOO, AREN'T YOU?!"

"Oh. Well." She curled the edge of one of her twin-tails. "I guess it depends on your definition of 'alien.' " She shrugged. "But yeah, I guess you could call me that."

Teri went back to gaping in shock.

He had no words.

No clue.

No comprehension that this could have actually been possible.

Hope was an alien? When did that happen?

No—why didn't Teri realize it sooner?

Whaaaaaat?

While Teri just stood there, absorbing this, Hope quickly turned back to Pulala and Latata. "Anyway I've found your space ship and all, and I've transferred it to a repair room if you ever need it back," she spoke quickly. "You've got lots of cool stuff in there!"

Pulala smiled. "Thanks!"

"You don't mind that I've had a look at all of it, right? Because, well, I guess it's not my place to go snooping around in other peoples' stuff. But getting a look at what kind of technology it was really helped with repairs."

"I certainly don't mind. Don't know about the rest of my platoon, though. At least we _know_ where that ship is now!" Pulala wiped a bit of sweat off her brow in relief. "Dokiki sent me a message a few weeks ago telling me that the ship was gone. I haven't heard from her since, so she must still be investigating."

"Hm, that could be possible," suggested Hope as she touched her chin in thought. "In fact, I almost thought I had a previous lead on one of the members of your platoon. Guess I was wrong, though."

"Luckily, though," Pulala stated, "with Latata and the Nishizawas here, we'll find the rest of our platoon in no time."

Hope clapped her hands together. "That's great! What can I do to help? Besides giving you guys back your ship and all."

It was just then that Teri forced himself to break away from his state of shock just so he could register what Hope had said.

_"…giving you guys back your ship and all."_

"Wait wait wait wait wait. Hold up here a second." Teri interrupted them and put a hand out, his other hand on his head. "Hope, _what_? I—I'm still really confused right now—but one thing I do know is that you can't just give them back their space ship. They're invaders!"

She blinked at him. "So?"

"So they're going to try to invade Earth if you give them back their space ship, of course!"

"Hmmm…." She considered this. "I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Well, for one thing—" She had to pause because her skirt pocket made a sound. Teri was confused by this until she took out her phone to read a text. Hope frowned.

"Uh-oh… so, I sort of have to be going home now…."

Teri leaned his head against the wall. Of all times for—!

"Sorry, Teri." She flashed him a completely innocent smile. "Can we perhaps talk about this later?"

"Later?" Teri looked puzzled. "What do you have at home? Can't it be disregarded at the moment since we've got bigger things to worry about?"

"Woah, chill, Teri," Himani told him. "It's just _aliens_."

"WHY DO YOU SAY THAT LIKE IT'S NO BIG DEAL?"

"Why do you say that like it _is_ a big deal…?"

Hope bit her lip and looked between them before swallowing and darting her eyes off to the side. "Well… uh… it looks like I'd better be leaving now!" She slipped her phone into her pocket and left through the door, poking her head out momentarily. "Bye, Teri! Bye, purple and teal Keronians! Bye, giant robot! Bye, blue-haired creatures! Talk to you all later!"

With that, Hope shut the door and quickly exited the house.

Teri buried his face into his hands. "I can't believe this is all happening…."

"There are worse problems you will have in the world," Himani told him.

"Yeah! And your friend seemed pretty nice! There's nothing to worry about," Hanayu assured.

"I don't understand Pekoponians," muttered Pulala.

Latata was just confused.

* * *

Hope might have been able to dodge one bullet, but she couldn't avoid Teri at school.

He was still _not_ quite done absorbing what had happened; in fact, it had been on his mind the entire night.

"So you're an alien?" Teri whispered over to her as they ignored the teacher's lesson.

Hope shushed him with a quiet giggle, leaning her head back so she could look at him from a better angle.

"Why didn't you say anything bef—"

"Teeeeri." Her voice fell to a hushed tone. "Classroom. There are Pekoponians all around us. You don't want them to know, too, do you?"

"Can we talk later, then?" He tossed a glance off to the side. "At lunch maybe? You know… talking about all this stuff… together—"

"Mr. Hinata!" The teacher swiveled around and threw a stick of chalk toward the back of the glass room, where it flew at Teri. Luckily, he ducked, and it hit the face of the kid behind him. No loss there because it was just another of those kids without a name. "Stop flirting with your classmate and pay attention to the lesson for once!"

"Um… uh…." Teri's face grew increasingly red as he sunk in his seat. Other students around him began to snicker, and even Hope released a bit of a giggle. The edges of his lips turned downward in humiliation. "Yes… Teacher…."

So Teri had to wait for lunch to roll around to be able to flirt with Hope. _Flirt_. I mean talk about aliens. He called dibs on some spot outside and the two of them ditched the indoors.

"Soooo… you're an alien. What's with that?" Teri asked her as he leaned against the stone wall of the school. He took out his boxed lunch, though he wasn't sure if he should start eating it yet. Confusion detracted from his appetite.

"I told you already," said Hope, "it only depends on what your definition of 'alien' happens to be." She turned to him. "So what's your definition?"

"Um… someone who comes from a different, planet, I guess." He became distracted from his lunch as he thought more about it.

"Well, then, I guess I'm not really an alien, then, am I?"

"You… don't come from a different planet?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "I was born on…" Her voice became quieter as some other students walked by. "…born on Pekopon, like you were."

"And… Pekopon's the word for 'Earth,' right?"

"Right."

"I see. Latata's used it before." Personally, Teri was amazed he remembered that.

He looked off to the side. "So, um… what planet do you live on, then?"

"I guess I don't really _live_ anywhere. I'm quite versatile. Lots of traveling. You know? The contemporary way of doing things."

"Never really heard it phrased like that before." He bit into a sliced yam.

"Well, it's not so bad. You get to meet lots of people." She paused a moment. "Then again, you have to say good-bye to them, too…."

"That's kind of sad," said Teri.

Hope let out an agreeable sigh and brought her knees up to her chest, leaning her head against her shoulder. Teri gazed at her as she shut her eyes. Secretly, he wished that could have been his shoulder, and not her own, that she was leaning her head against. Ah, that would feel so nice. Her skin definitely looked soft enough, and she probably had really soft hair, too. The way she wore her hair particularly appealed to him, pulled back from her head, so that he could see all of her face, all the expressions she made. She really did look rather cute.

She broke the silence. "So… you don't mind that I'm sort of an alien, then?"

"W-well, no. Not really. Should I?"

"Um, no. I guess not," she answered. Her eyes flickered off to the side for a second—just a second. She hadn't noticed, but Teri certainly had—a sure sign that she wasn't letting on all that she could have… as if she had something else worth minding.

Teri set aside his boxed lunch, which he had halfway eaten as he thought about things. He stretched his legs out in front of him. "I really don't think that you should give Latata's platoon their space ship back."

"Why not?" she asked him. "And before you say 'It's because they're invaders,' just know that there's nothing to worry about." She smiled. "Aliens have tried to invade Pekopon countless times before, and it's _never_ worked. I doubt that it's going to work this time, either."

The sly tone she snuck into her voice did not go unnoticed by Teri. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something mysterious going on, something that _everybody_ knew except for him.

"Well… how do we know that for sure? What if something else happens?" Teri's heart started beating faster, although he really didn't want to come off as frantic or panicky. "What if someone gets hurt?"

"That won't happen." Hope leaned her head against her knee now as she looked at Teri, and she looked very cute as she did so. There were a lot of cute things that she did, now that he thought about it. He hated this. He wanted to go back to the time he didn't have a crush on her. Things had been so much easier between them. But now… there was nowhere he could run because he was pretty sure that there was red on his face at this point. And how she was just looking at him sweetly like that—watching as the red turned deeper and deeper—wasn't exactly helping the problem.

"Won't… won't happen…. Wh-why won't it h-happen, now?" He really hoped that he wasn't stuttering.

"Pekopon's got something different this time. They have the Pekopon Protection League," she said to him.

"Really?" He caught his breath when she stopped looking at him. "What's that?" Thank god, he could think straight again.

"The defense forces for Pekopon, of course. Are you okay, Teri?"

"Fine! Just fine. Uh, tell me more about this Pekopon Protection League?"

"What else? That's pretty much what they do—make sure Pekopon doesn't get invaded. They're pretty efficient," she put in. She thought a moment and grinned. "I've heard that their technology is pretty up-to-date."

He frowned. "Why do you know more about this than I do? I'm the one here who's actually an Earthling… or a Pekoponian, I guess."

"There's a lot that I know that you don't, Teri," she said quite simply. "I'm sure that if you look around a bit more, you'll start learning things, too. Maybe write down those things in that notebook of yours." She fell silent a moment. "Now, what were we talking about, again?—Right. So this… Pekopon Protection League or whatever."

"Oh! Right. Well, if you really wanted, we could turn the aliens in to them," she suggested.

"And that would solve the problem?"

"Most likely."

"All right. We're going to have to tell my cousins of that plan, then. I don't know whether they're going to like it or not. And…" His eyes wandered off. "…I also think we should find the rest of their platoon first."

She nodded. "You're right."

Teri paused. "I think I'm going to tell my little sister about this, too. It's been hard keeping her in the dark about all this since she's so spontaneous." He shrugged. "Besides, I get the feeling that she'll get along great with the frogs."

Hope grinned, stood up, and playfully rubbed her hand on Teri's hair. He tried hard not to melt at the contact. He tried really hard. "You know, for someone who's so forgetful all the time, you're catching on pretty quickly to this whole dealing-with-aliens thing." She lowered her forehead slightly and became quieter. "Perhaps there's hope, after all."

He laughed and stood up with her. "Well, of course there is. _You're_ Hope."

"Yeah." She smiled. "I guess you're right."

Under her breath, it almost sounded like she spoke something, but Teri didn't catch what it was.


	20. Murphy's Law

As Teri rode his bike to his cousins' mansion to meet Hope and the twins, a thought suddenly occurred to him—something he hadn't paid attention to at first, but now that he recalled the scene in his mind, he couldn't get it out.

Hope had come to his house because she was returning his notebook that he'd accidentally left at school. He didn't remember doing so, and he didn't remember why, but all he could picture was the scene of Hope handing him the notebook. He really wanted to trust her words—"don't worry, I didn't look in it"—but paranoia still ate away at him. He had a lot—_a lot_—of ramblings written in there about her in particular, and he didn't know what he'd do if she ever even caught a glimpse of what he actually thought of her. He didn't want to think about it. Though, she did seem to act as though nothing was up…. Maybe she was just pretending. Or perhaps she really didn't look in there, after all. He desperately wished for the latter.

Once he made it to the Nishizawa gate, he went through the usual routine of voice recognition and entered the road to the doors. When he finally made it inside, Hope and the twins stopped their conversation and turned to him.

"Well, you're fashionably late," said Himani as he crossed his arms.

"Great to know." He tucked his fingers into the edge of his pocket and looked amongst the three of them. "So… what were you guys talking about when I came in?"

For once, he was thankful that an alien was at his house. He'd much rather have Pulala chatting with Latata back home than have her here, where she might hear their plans to turn her in to the PPL and ruin them somehow. And Latata finally had a familiar face to talk to, at least.

"Oh, we were just discussing Himani and Hanayu's old plots for conquering the planet," Hope quickly explained. "Why they didn't work and all. Most of them were just silly mistakes. Oh, well. Out with the old, and in with the new, right?"

Himani lowered his eyebrows and muttered under his breath, "_I_ didn't think those plots were silly mistakes…."

"Oh." Hope looked embarrassed. "Well… you'll always be thinking of better plots. Leave some room for improvement, you know?"

"I—I really don't think you should be encouraging this," Teri pointed out. "Hope and I are actually kind of here to _talk_ about that, specifically…."

He did have to wonder why Hope was suddenly the expert on all things invasion. Were all aliens like that? Was there some universal knowledge that Earth was left out on? He really wanted to find out, but wasn't sure if he should ask. Next thing he knew, she'd probably magically be able to use Keronian Sign Language, too.

"Talk about… what?" Hanayu asked slowly.

"The…. _You_ know what." His eyes darted off to either side, and he leaned in to whisper, "The alien frogs."

She furrowed her brow. "You mean… the ones like Pulala and Latata?"

For a moment, he was confused by this but dismissed it with a nod. "Yeah. Are there any rooms in your… mansion… that _aren't_ riddled with security cameras?"

"Hmm… we have a cellar."

"Forty of them," Himani put in.

Hope looked pretty impressed.

Teri sweat-dropped. "Uh, why don't you two choose the best one to talk in?"

As it happened to be, Himani and Hanayu chose the darkest, dankest, oldest cellar underneath the mansion for the four of them to gather in. The upside was that there were no security cameras to monitor them, but the downside was… well… everything else.

Quietly, Hanayu shut the door behind her and twisted the latch around a couple of times until it locked. Then she flipped a switch on the wall, and the middle of the room lit up slightly. …It really only helped a little bit.

"All right. So what was it that you wanted to talk about regarding Pulala and Latata that you needed a room free of cameras for?" she asked.

Teri looked at Hope for a moment, and she gave him a nod. _Go on. Tell them_, she appeared to say. He swallowed and looked back at his two younger cousins. "We're thinking… that maybe we should just turn Latata and Pulala in to the PPL."

Himani blinked. Then it registered. "_WHAT_?!"

"Well… since the PPL actually knows what they're doing, it might be best to just—"

"You—you want us to just hand over Pulala?" Himani didn't sound like he believed what he was hearing. "But she needs to help me conquer the planet!"

"Himani, listen to me!" Teri put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "She's an alien from outer space. Do you honestly think she's going to let you have the planet in the end, even if you _did_ conquer it?"

"Of course she would! We promised to work togeth—"

"You can't always trust people when they say that."

"I think Pulala's nice," Hanayu commented.

"Yeah! Pulala wouldn't do that."

"Yeah, she wouldn't, would she?" said Teri. "But what would happen when she meets up with the rest of her platoon? They have higher priorities—ones that don't have anything to do with you, you know."

Himani was about to say something, but then he closed his mouth and thought. His face went from anger to a touch of disappointment.

"We have to turn them in to the PPL."

"Teri, just because you're older than me, you can't tell me what to do!" he shouted. "Neither can Pulala. I'm a Nishizawa! I can do whatever I want!"

"Himani, be sensible. This is just—"

"No!" he yelled. "I'm _not_ turning Pulala in to the PPL! You can't make me! They ruin _everything_!"

"It's true," said Hanayu with a sigh.

"If the PPL found out about Pulala, you know what they'd do?" Himani looked him in the eye. "They would send her back to Keron, that's what. They'd make sure she never stepped foot on this planet again."

Teri was speechless. Originally he had just assumed that Pulala was just another tool in his cousin's world conquest, but now he was having second thoughts. Maybe Himani had actually started to care about her during the extremely short time that they had spent together.

"You know how awful that would be for me, to be short one vital ally?"

…Or maybe not. Reliable old Himani, always trying to prove him wrong.

With a sigh, Teri turned away from him and put his hand on the latch of the door. His pink bangs fell over his eyes as he gazed downward.

"Where…. Where are you going?" Himani dared to ask.

"I'm leaving," he said. "I can see now that you're not going to listen to me. Fine! We won't turn the aliens in to the PPL."

"Are you sure?" asked Hope.

Teri nodded, and then looked to Himani. "Instead, I'm going to find the rest of their platoon. We won't need the PPL to send a few _aliens_ back into space on our own."

Himani gulped, but he remained staring persistently at Teri with his expression of rage.

Teri didn't want to deal with that brat any longer. After getting the latch unlocked, he swung open the door and stepped out. "Well, I'm leaving. You coming, Hope?"

"Uh, sure." Hope took her hands out from behind her back and followed after, leaving the twins in the dark cellar.

"Well… that didn't go as I had planned at all, to be honest," Teri had to admit as they exited the Nishizawa manor.

"Of course it didn't. What did you expect?" Hope released a giggle. "Your cousin's practically an invader from birth."

With a dismissive "hm" in response, Teri tucked his hands into his pockets and kicked at a pebble along the road they walked on. Of all things Himani had to be obsessed about… did it have to be that?

"Oh… um… I almost forget to tell you, but"—Hope gave another laugh, though a bit of an ironic-sounding one.—"the platoon's space ship is in your cousins' mansion now."

So she had given it back to them, then. Teri nodded slowly. Pulala had better not use it for her invasion… well… now that he thought about it, she probably would… but if she did, Teri would do everything possible to stop her.

"So, I guess we just have to find the rest of the platoon now, huh?" he asked her.

Hope nodded her head. "Just three people left. I'm sure it can't be that hard, right?"

"Please don't say that," he begged. "Haven't you ever heard of Murphy's Law?"

* * *

By the time Teri sat down in his room to greet Latata (and, _sigh_, Pulala) and make up some lies regarding why he had been at the Nishizawa mansion earlier that day, the sky was fading into its golden-orange autumn hues of early autumn, and streaks of yellow light from a late sun filled his room.

When Latata saw him enter the room, he scribbled something down in their green notebook and held it up for him to see.

_Teri, you didn't tell me that your cousins were rich!_ the message read. Teri's eyes went to Pulala. Undoubtedly, she was at fault for spreading this information to the teal frog. _What a convenience it is that they want us to invade, too! When I came to Pekopon, I didn't expect that the invasion would be so easy._

Reading it angered Teri. He snatched the notebook out of Latata's hands and began to write a response. _No, it isn't a convenience. You're not going to be invading. I'll make sure of it._

Latata looked disappointed, and Pulala for a moment was about to put a hand on his shoulder to console him, until she realized that she couldn't figure out where his shoulders even were.

"So… you… Pulala." Teri eyed the light-purple Keronian. "When are you leaving? Haven't you finished your little reunion with Latata yet?"

She rolled her eyes at his impatience and then attempted to sign something to Latata. After he gave her a kind of strange look, she signed it again, and he seemed to understand.

"Whatever. Latata wants me to leave, too," she said to Teri, "so I guess I might as well go."

After touching something on her hat, she went to the door and was about to open it, when Teri stopped her.

"You're—You're just going out like that? What if someone sees you?"

Pulala pointed to her hat-insignia, a red heart outline with a line down the middle. "Anti-barriers. Didn't we just talk about this yesterday? Or have you already forgotten?"

"Uuhhhhhhhh… that's a rhetorical question… right?"

Instead of answering, Pulala diverted her gaze from him and left through the door. "Say bye to Latata for me!" she called over her shoulder.

_Pulala says bye_, Teri wrote in the notebook, and then handed it to Latata, who nodded and set it back down.

Teri tried to think back to what Pulala had said about anti-barriers the other day, but all he did was draw a blank. He reached into his back pocket for his personal notebook, the brown one that he wrote everything down in, and flipped it open to yesterday's date. He tried to write everything down in the evening last night since he'd accidentally left his notebook at school and Hope had to come and give it to him. His eyes skimmed all the text for the word "anti-barrier," and finally he found where it popped up.

_The tadpole-like Keronian Pulala mentioned anti-barriers. Apparently they work on humans, just not Himani and Hanayu._

Oh, that's helpful, he thought. He still had no idea what anti-barriers did. Maybe he could ask Latata again, which might be a bit embarrassing, yes, but it would certainly spare him the—

"What? How can you see me?"

Teri really hoped that he didn't just hear what he thought he heard. He bolted out of his seat, causing Latata to give him a strange look.

"Um… are you one of Teri's friends?"

The second voice definitely belonged to his little sister. Teri's heart started pounding and he raced out of the room, Latata following after to see what Teri was running out of the room for. They didn't go very far—Pulala and Girara were just at the end of the hallway.

"Oh, hi, Teri!" Girara looked up at her brother, ignoring the frightened expression of the Keronian before her. "Who's this?"

Teri bit his lip. This was awful.

Unless… he was going to tell his sister about the aliens, anyway….

Quickly, he flipped back into his notebook. _Promised Hope I'd tell Girara about Pulala and Latata. She'd get along with the frogs really well, since Latata's weird and Girara's weird, too._

He let out a sigh of relief.

"Girara, would you come into my room, please? We've got…. We've got a lot to talk about."

Pulala looked at the boy like he'd just told her that Santa Claus was a myth and all her Christmas presents actually came from her parents.

"Um… are you sure that's a good idea, Teri?" Pulala touched her cheek. "We could very easily erase her memory, now that we've got the ship back…."

Somehow, the idea of Girara getting her memories erased sent chills up his spine. Instead he took Pulala by the arm and dragged her back into his room, where his sister and Latata followed. Teri locked the door behind them.

"Okay, Girara. I'm sorry that I haven't told you this yet, but… there's been an alien invader living in my room for about two weeks now."

"Really?" She brightened. "Cool! Ah…" She looked between them. "…which one?"

"Um, his name is Latata. He's the teal one." Teri pointed to him, and the guy waved, not knowing what else to do. "He can't hear very well, so if you want to talk to him, you're going to have to borrow my notebook."

She reached for the one in his hand, and Teri hastily pushed her hand away.

"Ah! Um…." He blushed. "_Not_ this one. I meant the green one. On my desk. Over there."

"Oh. Okay." Girara picked up the green notebook as well as a pen and seated herself on Teri's desk, where she flipped to an open page. As she wrote, Teri continued.

"Pulala is… also an invader."

"Hi, Pulala!" Girara turned around momentarily to smile at her. Pulala smiled back, though still looking confused.

"They're in a platoon together, and we're trying to find the rest of their platoon so that we can…." He shook his head and quickly corrected himself. "So that they're not as lonely anymore here on Earth."

"That's really nice, Teri," she said.

"Uh-huh. Now, Girara—this last part is very important—you _cannot tell Mom and Dad_. All right?"

"Okey-dokey." Girara started to swing her legs as she wrote her message. Then she asked, "How come?"

"Um… well… because they're invaders?"

"So?"

Teri wasn't sure why his sister just couldn't get the point.

"_Alien_ invaders."

"Mom and Dad can take 'em!"

He had to bang his head against the wall for a moment. When he was done getting out all his frustration, he turned back to Girara. "I don't want Mom and Dad to flip out about this. That's why we can't tell them. This is a secret, just between us, okay?"

"Okay," said Girara. _Finally_, she was starting to get it!

After a second, she put the pen down and held up the notebook. "Here you go, Mr. Latata! I wrote you a message!"

Latata took the notebook and read what she'd written, Teri and Pulala peering over his shoulder.

_Wellcome to Pekopon Mr Latata! It's OK that you can't here, my brother is annoying some times. Good luck on your evasion! I no you can do it. Even if nobody else has be four. It might work this time._

Latata scratched his head. Teri could not believe what he had read. Why would his sister write something like that? It didn't make any sense.

He slipped her a glare. "What do you mean, 'my brother is annoying sometimes?' "

"Uh… you weren't supposed to read that, Teri." She twiddled her thumbs, avoiding eye contact. As if to change the subject, her eyes went to Pulala and she asked, "Hey… Miss Pulala, are you part of the Zeroro Platoon?"

"Z-Zeroro Platoon?" Pulala looked at her kind of strange.

"Um, she might mean _Zurere_ Platoon," Teri suggested. Then he thought a moment as the words clicked in his head. "Wait a second… and just _how_ do you know of the Zurere Platoon?"

"Kohizou told me about it," she said simply.

Teri tried to remember who Kohizou was. One of Girara's friends, maybe…? Was he the one without any pupils? …Or maybe he was the one with the beard…? _No, wait. I'm thinking of the wrong thing._

"Kohizou said about how Mister Zurere told him that he was the Staff Sergeant of the Zurere Platoon and they wanted to invade, too."

Pulala's eyes widened. "You—You knew where the Staff Sergeant is? Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I didn't _know_ that you were part of the Zurere Platoon!"

"What other platoon would there be?" said Teri.

"Well, why didn't _you_ say anything before, Teri?" his sister asked him.

"I—I just didn't think—I mean, you know why, Girara!" He tried to get her to understand, but she probably wouldn't. She had been taking this all in stride. In fact, Teri was amazed at his sister for once. Murphy was a liar. This search would go off without a hitch.

"It's good to know that we'll be getting our Staff Sergeant back at last," said Pulala with a sigh. Latata tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to him, only to see that he was very confused. After quickly explaining the situation to him via signs, his face brightened in excitement. He snatched the notebook and quickly began to write in it, but wrote so fast that he had to cross everything out and start over again.

_Zurere's coming back to us! Thank frog, I'll finally have another Keronian to talk to besides Pulala!_

Pulala frowned at him.

"Should we all go to Kohizou's house right now?" asked Girara.

Teri thought a moment, then shrugged. "Guess so. No point in wasting time."

He looked at his desk for anything to grab, and stuck his two notebooks in his back pocket, as well as a flashlight, since it might be getting dark soon. His eyes went to his cell phone, and he reached for it.

"You know… I think I'm gonna call up Hope. She wants to see the rest of the Zurere Platoon herself. …Something about an apology?"

"All right. Hope seems pretty nice," said Pulala.

"Just don't start making kissy noises over the phone," Girara warned him.

Teri shot her a dissatisfied glare before calling Hope's number. When she picked up on the other end, he quickly explained to her that another member of the Zurere Platoon had been found, something that she was quite happy to hear.

Pulala slowly signed something to Latata and he turned the insignia on his hat, then did the same herself. A rainbow-like shimmer appeared around their skin. "We ready?"

"I think so. It's only going to be a quick visit, so…." Teri turned to his sister. "Girara, is your friend's house far?"

"Not very," she assured them. "It's in a forest, though."

"Ah… really?"

"Uh-huh."

Teri had to skeptically glance outside the window. It wasn't that he wanted to doubt his sister, but he honestly didn't believe there'd be any place for a forest to fit amongst buildings as far as the eye could see.

With a sigh, he decided to put his trust in her. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, after all.

* * *

Girara had lied. The walk was a long one.

Halfway there, Hope joined with them as they continued along the path that lead to the forest. After a few minutes she finally asked the question that neither Hinata sibling had been considering.

"So, uh, did you leave Pulala and Latata at your house?"

"What?" Teri looked up at her.

"Well, since they're not here with you…."

He swiveled around. They were nowhere in sight. Heart pounding, he desperately tried to remember where they were last. But he just couldn't remember.

"They—They were just here a second ago—I _know_ they were…. No, I couldn't have left them at home, could I…? Maybe…. Maybe I did…." He turned his head toward his little sister. "Girara, did I leave them at home?"

"Dunno," she answered. "I wasn't paying attention."

Reliable, so reliable, thought Teri.

"Oh! Look over there!" She started jumping up and down. "It's Kohizou's house!"

"So she was paying attention to one thing," Teri muttered under his breath, still internally freaking out.

Enclosed within a pocket of thick bamboo amongst the trees was a humble wooden home. Behind it, a wooden wheel turned under a heavy stream that pushed past. The whole scene made Teri feel like he was suddenly centuries in the past, aside from the Nishizawa tower that just barely poked out from the distance.

Girara darted ahead. "I'm gonna go get Kohizou, okay? You two have to stay here."

Teri raised an eyebrow. "…Why?"

She stomped her foot. "Because Kohizou's family are ninja, duh!"

"Wait, what?"

"You don't know the signal!" She was already running to the house.

"Girara! Wait—ugh."

Oh, well. Now that Girara was gone, Teri was left alone with Hope. No words were exchanged between them. Teri searched desperately in his mind for any recollection of whether he'd left the frogs out home.

He thoughts were cut short by a strange sound from behind them—rapid footsteps and panting. Teri and Hope swiveled around. _Oh, good,_ thought Teri, _it's the frogs. I knew they were with us the whole time! I just knew it!_

But… no. Running toward them were Himani and Hanayu, who stopped just feet before them as they tried to catch their breath.

_What are **they** doing here?_ Teri wondered, furrowing his brow. _They didn't run all the way out here, did they?_ So many strange things were happening today.

"What's going on, guys?" he asked them.

Instead of answering, Himani pointed an accusing finger at Hope. "What did you do with it?!" he demanded.

"Do with what?" she asked.

"You know what we're talking about!" he yelled at her. "Changing your mind after you decide to help us. Where is the space ship?!"

"What? I don't know! I gave it to you!" she said. "It's in your mansion, isn't it?"

"No! No, it isn't! It's gone! We don't know what you did with it, but it's gone!"

Abruptly, Girara and Kohizou came out of the house and began running to them. The Keronian was not with them.

"Girara? …Where is your friend's alien?" Teri asked her. That sick feeling in the pit of his stomach just got wider.

Both looking distraught, Girara's sad eyes practically spelled it right out. "Zurere wasn't in there, Teri."

"Oh, god…." He swallowed.

"What's going on?" Kohizou slowly spoke.

They fell silent as a whirring sound appeared in the treas.

Teri said a bad word, and Girara shot him an appalled expression.

Out from the forest came the ship, hovering a good twenty meters or so in the air. It began to take off.

"After it!" Teri yelled. They began to chase after the ship, though it seemed futile. The large object was slowly gaining momentum.

"Wait!—Stop," Hope told them as she squinted her eyes. "I can see them in there… the teal one, the purple one, and the other purple one!"

"That's Zurere!" Kohizou shouted.

"No, it's Pulala," said Himani.

"The—the teal one—he can see us!" said Hope.

"How do you know?"

"He's doing something with his hands…."

"It's the Keronian Sign Language," Hanayu figured out.

"He's—He's signing something! He's definitely signing something! …Hold on, I think I read a book once on KSL…." Hope continued running to try and piece together was he was trying to say. "He's saying…. 'Teri'…"

Teri perked up.

"…I think it must be, like, 'You're a nice kid, Teri, but it's time we go apart. Like, part separate ways? You know? That, or 'I'll always throw spinach salad on your face when you sleep,' or something. Not sure. I only read half the book, and he's kind of far away, so—"

"He's leaving with them?" Teri couldn't believe his ears. In any other circumstance, he would've been amazed that Hope could translate that, even if only halfway. Right now, though, all he felt was anger.

"Wait—he's signing something else!" Hope ran up ahead some more, and the other five rapidly followed. She had to shout over her shoulder as he ran. "I—I don't know who he's talking to now! But he says, 'Good luck with your girlf—' "

"ALL RIGHT, THAT'S IT!" Teri shouted.

What happened next, the three frogs in the ship would not have expected if they could see what was happening.

The one thing they knew: Something began rapidly pelting the underside of the ship, way too quickly for any of them too process that the rudders and engine were now out. Dangerous sparks of electricity began to shoot at them from all sides as wires and cables burst.

Latata signed to Pulala, "What's happening?"

"We're being shot down!"

"What? No, that's impossible!" said Zurere.

It was too late. They began to lose what little altitude they had. They heard the trees sweeping the underside of the ship. It was happening all over again.

"New Recruit!" Zurere shouted. "Initiate crash-landing safety procedure!"

"O-on it, sir!" Pulala quickly pressed some buttons typed in some last-minute commands.

"Brace yourselves for impact…."

Thankfully, the explosion they made when the ship met with the ground was not as big as anyone had expected.

Back in the Pekoponian/humanoid group, Hope smacked her fist into her palm. "You know, I _bet_ what he was trying to sign was actually, 'Best of luck to the dinosaurs.' But doesn't he know they're already extinct?"

"After that light!" Teri shouted at the others. It was only a several meters away from them now. They all ran toward it, some in anger, others in desperation to see if the frogs were all right. By the time they had reached the fallen ship, the smoke had died down, pitching everything into darkness.

"Where are they?" Hanayu cried.

"I don't know, it's too dark to see!"

"We have to split up," they heard Teri say. "They're probably trying to run off at this point."

"Who am I touching?" Girara asked.

Hope squeaked. "That's me!"

"Oh, sorry."

"Himani and I are going to go this way, then," Hanayu called to them.

"Which way?"

"This way!"

"What way is that?"

"I—I don't know! We'll meet back up with you guys later!"

"Where's Kohizou?" Girara asked.

"I'm over here! I'm looking for Zurere!" he called.

She shouted something back, but the sound of her voice was drowned out by the sound of creaking.

The last thing anybody heard from each other was, "Oh, god, what's that?" and then several screams.

The trees were falling around them.

"Girara! Hope!" Teri shouted. He could not hear either of them shout back.

He bit back tears in his throat. He would have no idea if they were hurt now. _This is all my fault,_ he thought, leaning against a fallen tree behind him. _If I hadn't lost my temper…._

Murphy had been telling the truth all along; he realized this all too late.


	21. There Go My Dinner Plans

The darkness was closing in on him.

Everywhere, as far as the eye could see, was darkness. He lost control of his breath. His diaphragm began to spazz, and he began pumping air through his lungs as a rapid pace. His head felt like it was spinning.

Suddenly, he fell to the ground. Everything drew closer to him; he squirmed back against something in fear. Not knowing what else to do, he brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, shivering. He didn't know what was going on. That was it. He had no idea what was happening.

Latata had never felt more deaf.

* * *

Pulala had not gotten very far from the wreckage when Himani and Hanayu began calling for her. A wave of relief washed over her and she followed the sound of their voices. Eventually she crashed into them.

"Ah! Oh my gosh, you two!" Pulala hugged Hanayu's leg. "I was worried!"

In lieu of a response, she was lifted into the air.

"_Pulala_…" Himani spoke in a disciplinary tone. She assumed that he was the one who currently had a grip on her. "Care to _explain_ why you took off and abandoned us? Oh, and I also thought I'd tell you, since you can't see my face in the dark, _I'm glaring_."

"Yeah, he's definitely glaring. You can hear it in his voice," his sister confirmed.

_Ah, so that's what this is about,_ thought Pulala. The thought calmed her down a bit. She placed a hand on what she presumed to be Himani's wrist. "I can explain," she said to the boy.

"Oh, can you, now?"

"Yes, I can. You see, we were intending to meet you at your mansion. We never thought that you'd be out _here_." It was a reasonable enough assertion.

"Well—" Himani ended his thought and put Pulala back on the ground. He crossed his arms. "I'm still not forgiving you. And because you tried to escape—"

"I told you, I didn't try to escape!"

"Because you tried to escape, I'm going to have to keep you under heavy surveillance from now on!"

"I didn't try to esc—"

"Pulala." Hanayu took over and looked at her with hurt eyes. Pulala couldn't really tell, since it was already so dark and all. "You lied to us. You tried to leave, even though you owed us a favor for not turning you in to the PPL."

Pulala, personally, didn't get what was the big deal. She _hadn't_ tried to escape—she really hadn't. All along, she'd been planning to take Zurere, Latata, and the ship to the Nishizawa manor. After all, why would she just toss aside a perfect alliance that would no doubt lead to her platoon's success in their invasion? The twins were more valuable than that.

Himani and Hanayu were both eleven-year olds and certainly acted their age, bratty and immature—that, she took for granted—but in their genes, they held access to something valuable that she didn't—and that was called half of Pekopon's economy. She wouldn't disregard that kind of happenstance. Deep down, the twins probably knew that.

Even so, they seemed hurt.

"Look, I don't owe you anything for taking the ship, all right?" Pulala clarified. "We just needed to follow your pink-haired cousin to get Zurere and leave before they could do anything to him, that was all. He's important to our mission," she explained, trying to show them that she was serious about it. "Right now…. Let's just focus on getting out of here."

"But we don't have a flashlight!" Hanayu pointed out.

"Well, my night vision isn't halfway bad; what about yours?"

"N-not so good…."

"Okay…. Just hold my hand, then, and I'll try to lead the way through these trees," she instructed. "And if I tell you to get down on your hands and knees, you're just gonna have to do it, all right?"

"All right."

Pulala reached forward to grab Hanayu's hand. She missed.

"Um… where _are_ you, Hanayu?"

"I'm right here!"

"Give me your hand."

Hanayu accidentally smacked her in the face.

"Oof!"

"Ah! Sorry, Pulala."

Pulala finally found her hand and grabbed it. She reached the other out toward where she could just barely make out Himani's form. "Himani? Are you coming with us?" she asked.

Silently, Himani slipped his hand forward and clasped onto hers.

He remained wordless, stuck in his own thoughts. Teri's words rung in his head.

_"What would happen when she meets up with the rest of her platoon? They have higher priorities—ones that don't have anything to do with you, you know."_

Teri was a big fat liar, he kept assuring himself. Everyone wanted to be his ally. He was Himani Nishizawa, heir to the Nishizawa fortune. There was no way that Pulala wouldn't benefit from an alliance with him.

But in the back of Himani's mind, that meddling seed of doubt remained.

* * *

_Blasted Pekoponian brats… ruining a perfectly good ship for the second time…. Why, how I'd like to give it to them—_

"Found you."

Zurere swiveled around, uncertain from what direction he'd heard the voice. When he turned behind him, two ovals of pale blue shined at him like a mirror.

His mouth twisted into a frown of malcontent. _It's that darned kid…. He's found me again!_

"How did you find me?" he practically spat.

"Your presence," Kohizou said simply. "It's very… loud." He dropped from the branch he had been hanging upside-down from and brushed himself off. "I'm training to be a ninja, so it's important to be able to sense a presence."

"A ninja, eh? Is that what they call it, that thing that you do?" Zurere speculated.

"Yes. They're Ninja Arts, passed down from generations of shinobi—" Kohizou covered his mouth. "I shouldn't be telling you this, should I?"

Zurere shot a strange look in his direction, then sat down on the frosty ground with a sigh. "Don't suppose you're gonna take me away again, now that you've found me?"

"Well, I'll have to, of course," said the boy. For a moment, he paused; then he asked, "Mister Zurere, I'm sad that you tried to run away."

"Yeah, well I'm sad that you caged me up!"

Kohizou was silent, trembling as he considered these words and Zurere's hurt feelings.

"Look, kid, we're all sad about a lot of things, but you just can't go protecting the planet like they teach you to do in the movies and stuff. A guy's got to do his job. And I was promised a _large_ bounty for this mission, I'll tell ya that." Zurere stood up. "I'm leaving. I suggest you'd better be, too, unless you want to die out here from cold."

"Oh… I'm fine," Kohizou told him. "I can see rather well in the dark. But what about you?"

Zurere made a "tsk" sound with his mouth, a bit insulted that this nine-year-old underestimated the abilities of a capable space pirate like himself. He started walking off.

"W-wait!" Kohizou's heart pounded. He knew he had to follow Zurere, or else he would fail his mission as a member of the Junior PPL. "Don't you need help—"

"I don't _NEED HELP_!" Zurere shouted back at him. "Will you just take your pitiful little ninja stuff elsewhere and leave me be?! I'm not some little animal that you can put on a leash and take everywhere, you know!"

Kohizou leaned back as if hit by the attack. His trembling carried through in his voice. "I—I thought we could be… f-friends…."

"Well, guess what? I don't really _want_ to be your friend. I don't really want to have anything to do with you. I just want to do my job without worrying about babysitting a kid with a philanthropy complex!" With that, he walked off.

Zurere didn't feel the least bit bad about shoving a spoonful of reality down his throat. _Someone had to tell it to the kid, anyway. I'm not here for him to use to carry out his little heroic fantasy._ He started walking faster, the blatant irritation of it all feeding into his footsteps.

He walked right into a tree.

* * *

Girara threw her hands up into the air. "Well, Teri's gone and done it again!"

"Done what again?" asked Hope, sitting on a fallen tree beside her.

"Oh, you know…. He always takes out firearms when he's angry. Last time?" said Girara. "Last time, we lost our whole _ceiling_ because of him. In the winter." She shivered. "I've never had colder blankets."

"That doesn't sound very fun at all."

"Yeah, it really wasn't. But I guess some people just gotta blow stuff up when they're angry."

Hope giggled. "Sounds like my mom."

Girara giggled, as well. "My mom's scary when she's mad, too."

"Are all moms like that?"

"I bet they are."

Hope released a sigh and moved her hand down the log she sat on. "Well, I'm sure he didn't _mean_ to shoot down the space ship I repaired…." A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Think we're the only ones here?"

"No." Girara gave a dismissive laugh. "Everyone else was here just a second ago…."

"I think they split up."

"What?" Girara stood up and sucked in a mouthful of air. "_TEEEERIIII!_" she shouted.

No response.

"_KOHIZOOOOOOOOU!_"

Nothing.

"_HIMANIIIIIIIIIIIII!_"

Zilch.

"_HANAYUUUUUUUUUUU!_"

A small squeak… no, wait, that was just a mouse brushing past their feet.

"Yup, they're gone," Hope confirmed.

Girara sat down on the log with her, downcast.

Hope pat the girl's head. "There, there. I'm sure they'll come back soon. The darkness won't kill you."

Girara smiled a bit.

"It's _hypothermia_ that does that."

She frowned. "You suck at comforting."

Hope took her hand off the girl's head. At least she tried.

For a moment, Girara was silent. Then she drew her knees up to her chest and stuffed her face into them. "He forgot."

"Hm?"

"He probably forgot to come look for me." There was hurt in her voice.

Hope shook her head. "No, what if—"

"He _always_ forgets!"

Hope twisted her mouth to the side.

"Always…. He's always forgetting stuff…." Girara knew Hope probably didn't believe her, but this was Teri they were talking about. As his little sister, she'd seen him do it all—from forgetting to close the refrigerator door, to missing an entire week of school, to forgetting his own name. "This time, he probably forgot me, too…." What would come next? Forgetting that their own dad was an alien? …Nah, that was out of the question.

"We could… look for him?"

"Okay." Girara hopped off the trunk, completely fine now. "Got a flashlight?"

Hope pulled out her phone pressed the screen. A bright light flashed on. "How's this?"

"That'll work."

"Cool! Let's get going."

"Okay." Girara grabbed onto the older girl's hand. Just as they ventured off into the unknown, a smile spread over Girara's face. What her brother wouldn't give to be in her place right now. She slipped her eyes upward at Hope's dark silhouette. This was the girl that her brother liked. She let out a giggle.

"…What's so funny?" asked Hope.

"Nothin'."

Hope just frowned and let out another sigh. This kid was a strange one.

* * *

After about five minutes of sulking, a miracle happened and it dawned on Teri.

Latata.

He quickly got to his feet. Being lost in a forest was bad enough. But with fallen trees and total darkness everywhere, how would someone like Latata fare? He was already missing _one_ of his senses.

Teri knew he had a flashlight with him—not because he remembered it, of course, but because he had been sitting on it in his back pocket as he sulked. He took it out and flicked on the switch, illuminating everything in white light.

He assessed the information he had. Latata couldn't have gone far. He wouldn't be able to shout for him, though. He turned around and swiped the flashlight to either side. From where he had walked from, which was, uh, he wasn't actually sure anymore….

Teri scratched his head. _Am I lost?_

He pitched the light ahead of him again and ran forward, ducking and dodging all the trees that he came across. As he ran, he continued to move the flashlight all about. When the light finally did skim over a hunched, teal figure, Teri's heart leapt to his throat. He immediately dropped the flashlight and scooped up the lonely frog in his arms, squeezing him tightly. Needless to say, Latata was quite shocked.

Teri put him back down and picked up the flashlight. He pulled the green notebook out of his other back pocket and flipped to the latest blank page, then wrote, _You okay?_

Latata wrote back, _Teri! You're here! Yeah, I was so scared. I mean, I'm not afraid of the dark or anything, but I really didn't know what to do!_

_Yeah. But it's okay now. I've got a flashlight._

_Thank frog on high, or whoever sent you to me._ Latata gave him a hug, one full of gratefulness. Feeling a bit sheepish, Teri pushed him off. He was just glad the guy was okay. He couldn't imagine how terrified he must have felt, left alone there in the dark.

They sat there a moment in silence. Now that Latata's head had cleared, his biting urge to address what was now on his mind took over.

_So, are you going to ask me about the whole running off thing?_ he wondered.

_Wait, you did what?_

Latata wished he hadn't reminded him. But now that he had, he had no choice but to elaborate.

_I ran off with Pulala to take Zurere and the ship and run._

After a moment of trying to recall the incident, Teri finally wrote, _Oh, yeah._

_Geez, you're really not good at remembering things for very long, are you?_

_Of course I am! I think._

_When was the last time you could remember something?_

_You know, I'm not sure._

_Okay…. Anyway, so we stole the spaceship, Pulala and I, and then we freed Zurere and he came with us. Then we fell out of the sky. Not sure how that happened. Pulala didn't really do a good job explaining._

Teri scratched the back of his neck. _That would be my fault. Sorry._

_Oh frog, what did you do this time?_

_Nothing! I just got a bit angry and shot you down, that's all._

_That's all? You call that nothing? _Latata stopped writing for a moment. He thought. Then he picked up the pen again. _Where in the world did you get guns all of a sudden? And don't say you forgot._

_I really don't know, though. They just sort of pop out of nowhere when I want them to._

_Who thought it was a good idea to give an amnesiac guns?_

_I don't know._

_That was a rhetorical question. You shouldn't have answered._

_Oh. Sorry. You know, I still don't forgive you for trying to run away._

Latata guessed it was his turn to apologize. _Sorry._

It was coming back to Teri in full now—the memory, the anger, everything. _Really, Latata? Really? After everything, you still wanted to get away?_

_They were my platoon! And I would come back to visit from time to time. Well, until we took over your planet. Then I'm not sure there'd be time in EITHER of our schedules._

_I can't believe this._

_Sorry. I have a job._

_Yeah, well, I have a job, too, and it's to protect my home. Sorry. But as soon as we get out of this forest, you're coming home with me._

_Aw, drat._

They did have to get out, first. Teri put away the notebook and let Latata climb onto his back. He pointed the flashlight forward into the darkness of the forest. There were too many trees above them to show any moonlight, if there _was_ any that night.

Taking a breath, Teri ventured onward through the trees, with Latata on his back.

Everyone was for the most part split up from each other, but they all shared the same goals—get the heck out of there as soon as possible, and then chastise the frogs like wild.


	22. When in Doubt, Blow Things Up

"Oh, oh, wait! But I've got more. Okay, one time, when Teri was a little kid—not that young, though, because I was just a baby when he was _that_ young—when he was older than that but younger that he is now—okay, one time, he started thinking for some reason that all the hats in the world would take you over if you put them on, and so he wouldn't wear a single hat for, like, a year, I think," Girara said. "Oh—oh—and another time, he was playing baseball, and he accidentally knocked the ball onto the fan, and we couldn't get it down, so he tried to turn on the fan, but it wouldn't work, and he tried to get a broom to knock it down, but it wouldn't work, so what he did was he…"

Hope kind of droned her out. For some reason or another, the kid had gotten it into her head that Hope all wanted to hear about was embarrassing Teri stories for half an hour straight. She admitted to finding a few of them funny, at first… but at this point, she was officially done with it.

_If I have to listen to one more story, I think my brain will turn into a black hole,_ she decided.

"Um, Girara? I know it's a long walk, but…. Why don't we do something else?"

"Um… like what?"

"I don't know. Do you want to play a game?"

"Okay, sure. What game?"

"Let's play…. 'I Spy.' "

"Okay, you start."

"I spy, with my little eye… something… black."

"Oh! Oh! Is it _everything_?"

"Yup!"

"Yay! Okay. That was a boring game. Let's play a different one now," said Girara.

"All right, what game would you like to play?"

"Um, how about rock-paper-scissors?"

"Okay."

They put their hands behind their back, shook their fists twice, and then brought them back out.

"What did you choose?" asked Hope.

"I chose rock."

"Oooh! Ooh! I chose paper!"

"No you didn't," Girara accused.

"Well, how do _you_ know?"

"Guess you're right."

"How about a different game?" asked Hope.

"Ummm, nah. I'm bored of games now."

"All right. Shall we just walk in silence, then?"

"Sure. Or, do you want to hear another sto—"

"Oh, no, no. That's okay. I'm good." Hope sighed in relief. She had dodged a bullet there.

* * *

"Ohhh… just look at this! My clothes are getting ruined!" Hanayu kept complaining.

"Hanayu, no one can see your stupid clothes, because we can't see anything!" her brother reminded her. "How can _you_ even see them?"

"I just know it…. It's this feeling from within," she whispered.

"Fine, fine, whatever. You know, you're not the only one worried about your clothes right now!"

"Peh. Aristocrats," Pulala snickered under her breath.

"What did you say?!" Himani demanded.

"EhhIdunno."

"Hanayu, did you hear what she said?"

Hanayu shrugged.

"Hanayu—"

"I said, 'shrug!' "

"Well, say it louder next time, because I didn't hear that, either!"

"Maybe you should get your ears checked."

"Maybe you should get your _fashion sense_ checked!"

"There is nothing wrong with the GothLoli fashion! You just don't like it because you're jealous!"

"What, you think _I_ want to look like a GothLoli?"

"Maybe you do!"

"Maybe _you_—"

"Both of you! Stop fighting!" Pulala told them. "Unless you want me to have break up the action for you. I already have to walk you through the forest holding both your hands, because apparently you can't even _follow_ me by yourselves! Okay?"

"S-sorry," Hanayu apologized. Himani just turned his cheek toward his sister.

For a long while after that, they walked through the darkness in silence.

"You know, it's interesting," Pulala finally spoke as they walked along, trying to have small-talk. "Even with you two being annoying and fighting, I never actually thought I'd be in this kind of a situation with Pekoponians, talking to them…. Well, not like this, that is, like we're doing now."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Hanayu.

"Well, you know, an invader's got to do what it takes to invade!" She shrugged off a small laugh. "Like… ransom and threats and all that. Stuff that has to do with press and media and government officials."

Hanayu and Himani both paled.

"You…. You'd never do that kind of stuff to _us_, right?"

"No! Of course not!" she assured them. "You two are _kids_. And my allies." She would have winked, had they not been in total darkness.

"Aren't you a kid, too, though?" Hanayu pointed out. "It's kinda hard to capture a government official when you're a kid."

"I've certainly tried," her brother put in.

If it was brighter, they would have seen Pulala's sly smile. "How do you know whether I'm a kid?"

"We _know_ a lot about Keronians, okay?" Himani clarified. "PPL, remember?"

"Oh. Right." Pulala grinned. "You Pekoponians really are so clever and smart, doing all this research on aliens! You don't know how cool I think that is."

Himani and Hanayu tried to exchange the same weird look, and failed, because darkness was yet again still a thing.

"…How old _are_ you, anyway?" Himani finally asked.

"Me?" Pulala tried to do the calculations in her head. "Let's see…. If you account for the time difference and then…. Different cycles…." She muttered some more. "I'd be…." She squinted her eyes. "…Fifteen, I think? Well, I _am_ the youngest in my platoon…."

"Fifteen? That seems awful young for the military…" said Hanayu.

"You're never too young for adventure!" Pulala thrust her fist into the air. "Besides, you're grouped into two main categories on my planet: Tail or No Tail. And since girls are usually tadpoles a bit longer—"

"We know, we know," Himani cut in.

"Yeah, so I've spent a _lot_ of time training for this position," Pulala told them. "And if they don't like it, that's too bad, because I've got skills _they_ can't pass up."

"What do you mean?"

"Here, let me show you." Pulala let go of their hands momentarily to pick up a rock from the ground and load it into something that sounded to the twins like a long hunk of metal. They heard a muffled sound, and the rock shot into the trees before them in a small burst of light that faded out just short of landing.

"My sniper can fire _anything_," she explained. "I designed it myself. A whole bunch of them, actually. Grenades, nets, tranquilizers…" She giggled. "…snacks. They're really handy for transportation and the sort. Oh, I can even compress light and create laser beams."

"Wow!" said Hanayu. Even Himani had to admit that was pretty cool. "Wait, where'd you get that gun?"

"Oh? You don't know about it yet? Inter-dimensional transport—"

"We know about that already," Himani dismissed.

"Oh, yeah, you're right," said Hanayu. "It's what Teri uses."

"Teri?" Pulala wanted to cock an eyebrow, if she had one. "Your cousin? But he's a Pekoponian!"

The twins shared a giggle.

"It's not funny! I just—I just had no idea that Pekoponians had access to such advanced technology, that's all." A wide grin spread across her face. "You know, people back home always called me a _nerd_ for knowing so much about Pekoponians,"

"A nerd? No way!" said Hanayu.

"Yeah. But I guess it turns out I wasn't a nerd at all."

"What do you mean?" asked Himani. "You still seem like a nerd to me."

"_Thanks_," she said sarcastically. "I meant that I don't know that much about Pekoponians, after all. I just happened to know a lot about them in the first place because both my parents used to go to Pekopon. Anyway, you two are practically living proof of it! When I came into your mansion, you saw right through my anti-barrier."

"Well, normal Pekoponians probably wouldn't. But… we're no normal Pekoponians," Hanayu said to her.

"I can see that now," said Pulala with a light chuckle. "I can see that now…."

She was glad they weren't fighting anymore. That had been enough of a headache…. Changing the topic had proved to be a success.

* * *

When Zurere woke up, he was not running through the forest, in search of the quickest way out, as he had expected. Instead, he was on the back of a young boy as he flitted through the fallen flora.

"Oh, for frog's sake…" he groaned.

"Oh, you're awake," Kohizou noticed. "Sorry I didn't wake you. You were sort of unconscious. Ran right into a tree. Looked really painful, too."

Zurere reached up and felt a bump on his head—the embarrassing proof of his mishap.

"How long I been out?" he asked.

"Only about fifteen minutes, I think," the boy told him.

"What? And you haven't found a way out of this place yet?"

"No, not yet…." Kohizou trailed off. "We're really stuck deep in here."

For a moment—just a moment—a brief thought entered itself in Zurere's mind. _A guy like Combat Medic Xuyiyi would never get lost in a place like this_. He quickly brushed it away. Then, remembering where he was, he pushed himself off of Kohizou's back.

"I'm going this way."

"But that's the direction we came from," Kohizou protested. "The exit is this way. I know it is."

"How?"

"I can sense it!"

"You can't sense everything, kid."

"You can if you're a ninja!"

Zurere wasn't sure what kind of rebuttal to give, since he didn't know in detail how ninja worked.

He let out a sigh. Maybe it was time to concede defeat—this kid wasn't going to give up on following him, after all. "All right," he said. "I'll come with you. Wherever you take us, the fault's on you if we wind up lost."

Kohizou's eyes brightened.

"I won't let you down, Mister Zurere! I'll find us a way out of here!" He reached his hand forward and grinned. "Pinky swear?"

"I have no idea what you're doing."

Kohizou took Zurere's hand and interlocked both of their pinkies together. "You have a ninja's promise!"

"Is…. Is that even a thing?"

Kohizou shrugged. "Eh."

They dropped their hands and continued walking through the trees together. Quiet as Kohizou's footsteps were, Zurere still knew he was beside him.

"…I'm sorry for earlier," Kohizou finally brought up.

Zurere wanted to retch. "Yeah?"

"About how I bothered you. I… I'm sorry."

"You already said that once, kid."

"Well, I'm extra sorry, so I said it twice."

"Hng. I see."

"…You know, if you ever wanted to know how to sense people, too, I could probably teach you maybe," Kohizou offered.

_Why in hell would he teach an enemy invader a ninja art?_ Zurere wondered; instead, he only clicked his tongue and said, "Ninja aren't really my thing…. I'm more a pirate person."

"Oh. Well, I don't know any pirate arts…."

"'Course you don't, 'cause they don't exist. And even if you did, why the hell would I care?"

"Hm, I don't know."

"Right," he affirmed.

"Mister Zurere," Kohizou asked, "do you like being a space pirate?"

The question took him slightly by surprise. _What kind of question even is that?_ he wondered. "If I didn't like my old troupe… if I didn't get along with snakes… if I didn't awaken every day primarily to hear the clink of long-sought-after gold in the morning… if I didn't enjoy the thrill of thievery, or the rush of adrenaline when you barely escape with the skin on your back…"

Kohizou momentarily became lost in the imagery of it all.

"…then what gives you the idea that I would have stuck around for so long?!"

He shrugged. "Thought you were an invader now."

Zurere scratched at his chin. "Yeah, well, that's a different sort of matter, y'see. When you're a Keronian, it's hard to quit being a Keronian. You know? They have ways to… to track you down if they need you."

"Why'd they need you?" Kohizou asked.

Zurere knew the boy didn't mean for it to come off as insulting; maybe he was just too curious to watch his words. "Space pirates are pretty dislikable, yeah? Keronians _hate_ space pirates."

Kohizou wasn't sure he understood.

"The thing is, though, that _I've_ got skills they don't teach their wusses back in their playtime military. And they needed that. They needed someone with new abilities for this mission…" He dropped to a mutter. "…since, from what I've heard, the previous 'invaders' didn't do too much of a bang-up job."

"Yeah," Kohizou agreed with a laugh. "Being a space pirate sounds really cool, Mister Zurere."

"Well, it is." After thinking a moment, he let Kohizou in on something. "Kid, if you were a space pirate, too, you'd definitely be in my troupe. We were really the best of the best."

Kohizou was amazed. "Can someone be a ninja, a space pirate, _and_ a protector of Pekopon at the same time?"

"Eh." Zurere gave a shrug in response.

The more he thought about it, Kohizou was a strange one, albeit a thorn in his side. He could see through his anti-barrier…. He even referred to his own planet as "Pekopon" instead of "Earth." Maybe it was a ninja thing. Who knew.

* * *

Surprisingly, Teri and Latata were the first ones to make it out. They weren't sure whether it owed to the flashlight or what—certainly not Teri's sense of direction, which was nonexistent. It was a miracle for them both.

When they made it out of the trees, they caught a glimpse of moonlight, and a cracked cry of relief released itself from Latata's throat. Teri took him down from off his back and put him on a fence, where he sat down next to him on. He took out their green notebook and flipped to the latest page.

_We need to wait here for the others_, he explained.

After reading the message, Latata puckered in lips in disappointment and brought his knees up to his chest. He thought a moment and then wrote a response. _Can I play on your phone while we wait?_

Teri pulled out his phone from his side pocket, then pressed the screen with his thumb. The power light was red.

_Sorry, it's running out of power,_ he wrote to Latata, _so I should probably save it for calls._

_Why don't you call someone now and tell them where you are?_ Latata suggested.

_Good idea._ Teri sent a text to Hope and the twins—"Made it out. Meet me by the fence on the edge of the road." _Latata, do you have your anti-barrier on?_

The frog nodded.

_That's good._

_What time is it?_

Reluctantly, Teri checked his phone. _It's six o'clock._

_WHAT? 6:00? A month ago it was 6:00 and it wasn't nearly this dark!_

_Yeah, well, I don't know why it is now._ Something having to do with weather, maybe? No… seasons?

_Is this some sort of Pekoponian conspiracy?_

_Could be, for all I know._

_Just one more reason for this place to get invaded! Once the Keronians are in charge, we'll make sure that it remains light at 6:00, or whatever time it is._

_Please don't invade._

_I make no promises._

Teri frowned at him—not so much of a hurtful glare as a playful scorning. _Just because my cousins side with invaders doesn't mean I will, too._

_You'll change your mind someday! Just you wait!_

_Oh, I don't think so._

_You might well,_ Latata told him, which made Teri a bit bothered. _A long while ago you hardly wanted anything to do with me. Now you've gone from hateful to apathetic. So you changed your mind about that._

_Did not! If it seems that way, it's just a coincidence. Nothing I can help._

_Am I hearing some denial?_ Latata teased.

That was an odd word choice, Teri thought. _By the way, Latata,_ he wrote, _can I ask you a personal question?_

_Go for it. Answering questions is my forte._

He wondered momentarily if he should change his mind before it was too late, what with how much Latata wrote usually. But reading what Latata told him about changing his mind, he decided not to. _Did you lose your hearing, or were you always without it?_

_I lost it._ He joked, _And it's been really hard to find ever since!_

_Lost it? How did you lose it?_

_You already asked me that question once, you know._

_No, I didn't._

_All right, all right. I'll answer the question for you. But in return, you answer one of my questions!_

_Okay,_ wrote Teri. It was a fair enough deal.

_Since you seem to like guns and all, you'll understand my plight. Ever stand REALLY close to a sniper rifle before?_

_No, and I don't intend to._

_Well, that's a good idea on your part. Well, anyway,_ Latata went on,_ I was just an innocent young bloke in boot camp when it happened. Back when I was a Hearing person, I was totally different! I went to so many heavy metal and rock concerts. I was the fastest talker in all my classes of training school AND in boot camp. In fact, I bet I was the fastest talker ever._

That didn't actually sound too much unlike him currently, thought Teri.

_And then Pulala happened. Now, if you think YOU make bad decisions sometimes, wait till you get to know Pulala._

_Hey!_ Teri protested.

_I'm telling a story here, Pekoponian! Okay, anyway, back in boot camp, Pulala and I were in the same troop. Apparently she was a good asset to the army or something like that, that's what she always bragged about, at least, because she was a lot younger than any of us there. So anyway, Pulala one day decided that it would be a GREAT idea to create a shock wave with her sniper by doing something with compressing sound waves or the like, I'm not sure, go ask her if you're curious and have nothing better to do. So I was right next to her, talking, when it accidentally went off right in my face! The idiot! Could have put safety on it or something when she was still tinkering with it!_

_Or, you could have been more careful,_ Teri pointed out.

_Hey! It had nothing to do with what I was doing!_

_Sure it didn't. So, how does the rest of your platoon communicate with you? Do they have to write everything down for you, like now?_

_No! Then I wouldn't be able to receive orders that quickly. Dokiki knows KSL. So does Pulala, or a bit of it, at least. And I, of course, am magnificently fluent._

_Oh, yeah. Did Dokiki have to learn it quickly? Or did everyone in your boot camp have to learn it?_

_Dokiki wasn't in my boot camp,_ Latata told him. _Though I think Xuyiyi was. He's a lot older than me, though. Anyway, Dokiki just knows it because it was probably programmed into her or something._

_Programmed?_

_I met Zurere a couple of times before losing my hearing, too._ Latata paused, then wrote, _Somehow, I get the feeling that he never liked me._

_Ooh. Sorry, buddy._

_All right, it's my turn to ask a question now,_ wrote Latata. _Why the heck are you so forgetful?_

_What? I'm not forgetful._

_Darn it, I KNEW that was a bad question to ask. What'd I expect, that you'd suddenly recall the first time you started forgetting things?_

Teri frowned. _Hey. I remember one thing, okay?_

_Oh, really, now?_ Latata wrote sarcastically.

_How I started using the notebooks. I can tell you about that. I always write about it in each of my new notebooks._ Teri pulled out the brown notebook from his pack pocket and opened to the front. _I think a therapist told me to do it._

_A therapist? Ooh, that's bad. What made you go to a therapist?_

Teri's eyes skimmed the text at the front of his notebook. _I left the stove on one time when I was home with a friend from school. It burned the house down. _He gave a nervous smile. _Fire and me don't really get along all that well…. So I got out of there as fast as I could. Only—_he swallowed—_I forgot my friend was in there. Sent him right to the hospital. That's what it says in my notebook. I don't remember that happening, though. I'm pretty SURE it was a friend who was over. But… which friend? Were we even cooking? I have no idea. I can't remember the details; they must not have been very important._

As Latata read through, he started gaping more and more. _Geez…! At least you have good long-term memory, right?_

_Course I do._

_Okay… what was the birth of your sister like?_

_Bloody, probably._

_How did your parents act when you were younger?_

_Impatient, probably._

_Who was the first friend you ever had?_

_Either a cat or a weapon, probably._

_So, what you're saying is, you aren't good at remembering ANYTHING. At all,_ Latata deduced.

_I don't know. It's hard to keep stuff in my head._ Teri hesitated. _The things I DO remember, they're the only thing I think about for a certain amount of time until they fade away, too._

_Well, at least you can remember that much._

_I'm not sure why,_ wrote Teri, _but I wish I knew._

* * *

Something buzzed in Hope's shirt pocket. She took out her phone.

"Hey, look at that," she said, breaking the silence. "It's a text from your brother."

"Oh! Really?" Girara sprung up to try and read what it said.

"_Made it out. Meet me by the fence on the edge of the road_."

"It takes that long to get out?" Girara looked frightened. "He just got out _now_? How are we going to get out?"

Hope shrugged. "Trial and error?"

"Did he send you anything else?" Girara asked with a sly little grin.

"What? Why would he?"

"No Xs? No Os?"

Hope looked again. "No…." Was this a Pekoponian thing she didn't get? She was sure she understood most Pekoponian things. Was it some sort of secret code? A set of directions?

"Oh." Girara looked disappointed. "Maybe he just forgot to."

For a moment, the evil thought crossed her head—maybe she should hint to Hope about her brother's crush. She held a very powerful bit of knowledge. _No,_ she realized. _I can't tell Hope. I have to keep it to myself, so that Teri can do things for me. Whenever he refuses, I can just say I'll tell Hope his secret._ She grinned again.

All Hope thought was how strange Teri's little sister was. Sometimes she really wished she could read minds. At the moment, all she wanted to do was get out of there.

With a sigh, she moved her hands to her upper arms, as if to protect herself from the cold. "You know, this is probably my fault for repairing those guys' ship for them. If I hadn't done it, this wouldn't have happened."

"Nah, we all know that this is _Teri's_ fault. Again."

"When we get out of here," said Hope, "I won't repair their ship again for them. I already did it once. I repaid my debt."

"What debt?" asked Girara.

She looked at the girl. "For breaking their ship. Oh—it was really an accident, though! I swear. You know how unpredictable meteors can be. I _promise_ you, knocking ships out of orbit is definitely _not_ one of my high priorities nowadays."

"Oh, so you're an alien," Girara figured out.

Hope smiled and nodded.

"How'd you knock 'em out of space?"

"Oh… with this." Hope held up the device in her hand.

"What is that?"

"It's my mom's phone."

"Phones can do that?" Girara sounded surprised.

"Well… it's not _just_ a phone. …You wanna see what else it can do?"

"Okay."

Girara heard something swivel through the air, then a soft thud—and all of a sudden, bark flew everywhere.

"Um… what did you do?" she asked.

"I blew up some trees!" Hope sounded proud. Girara wished she could have seen it.

"Can you blow up all the trees in front of us so we can get out quicker?"

Hope smiled. "Girara, I like the way you think." There was another soft thud, and another flurry of bark went everywhere. "We'll be out of here in no time."

* * *

Sure enough, they _were_ out of there in no time.

Pulala and the twins, as well as Kohizou and Zurere, eventually caught on to the fact that trees were disappearing because someone found an easier way to make his or her way through the forest. The only one who protested to such a thing was Kohizou, but nobody really listened to him, because they just wanted to get out of there.

As they made their way through, Hope and Girara met up with the others, and they all poured out of the trees at the same time.

Teri hopped off the fence. "Girara!" He ran to his sister and embraced her. "Were you okay?"

"Yeah, I was fine!" she said to him. "I told Hope embarrassing stories about you all the way here!"

Teri stopped hugging her. He shot a frightened glance toward Hope, who just gave a nervous laugh and avoided eye contact, then slipped the phone into her shirt pocket. "There were… a lot of them, apparently."

"Kohizou!" Girara ran to her friend. "How's it—"

"I—I can't believe this…." Kohizou just stood gaping at the catastrophic hole that led straight into the heart of the forest. "This is completely disrespectful of nature!"

"Um, nature disrespected _us_ first by falling down everywhere and trapping us there," Girara told him. She pat him on the back as he wept.

The three frogs gathered amongst each other just as Hope approached.

"I've made a decision," she said to them. "I'm _not_ repairing your ship again."

"Good, we don't need you to," Zurere spat to her.

"Actually, Captain, she was the one who made us crash on Pekopon in the first place," Pulala quickly filled in. As they all spoke she attempted to sign things to Latata so he'd know what they were saying.

"Right. Now, I've already repaid my debt," she told them. "I broke it once, I fixed it once. I wasn't the one who broke it this time." With that, she walked off, her twin-tails swishing behind her.

Latata jokingly signed something to Pulala. "Latata says that must mean it's Teri's turn to fix the ship," she translated.

Zurere grunted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Until we get that ship repaired for good, it seems we have no choice but to stay on Pekopon…."

* * *

The following day, the three frogs met in secret in one of the underground cellars of the Nishizawa manor.

Darkness was cast over everything, until Zurere pulled a cord, and the room filled with light.

"Now," he said, folding his hands on the table in front of him, "I believe we have some matters to discuss."


	23. And then there Were Four

Three frogs of the Zurere Platoon—Zurere, Pulala, and Latata—sat at a table in a cellar beneath the Nishizawa manor. Zurere folded his hands in front of him.

"We have to find Senior Private Dokiki," he explained. "She's the only one with the skills to repair that ship. Without it, reinforcement is uncountable."

"No. There is another possibility," said Pulala, taking notes on their conversation for Latata. "The Pekopon Protection League. They probably have the technology and supplies that we would need to contact headquarters."

"Very well. Pulala," Zurere spoke, "since you're in good standing with the Nishizawa twins, you'll be tasked with—"

"Actually," Pulala shrunk back. "Oh, uh, sorry for interrupting you, sir. But the Nishizawa twins are not well trusted by the PPL."

"Well—"

"At _all_. They have a history."

"What, do you suggest infiltration?"

Pulala nodded. "We may very well have to resort to that. And if so, I suppose we'd need Dokiki for that, anyway."

"Why is that?" asked Zurere.

"When the twins captured me, they explained a bit about the PPL's security—their databases, their documents…. It's all under the highest protection. If you wanted access to their communication devices, and possibly their weapons, you'd have to practically _be_ a computer to get past the security." She cocked an eye ridge.

"I see," said Zurere, nodding. "In that case, our next obstacle is _finding_ the Senior Private. I haven't heard from her since her first message she'd sent me several weeks back. Either, she's lost her communicator, or…" He trailed off, avoiding the thought that danced through their heads.

Pulala touched her hand to her lips. "You don't think she's been captured by the Pekoponians, do you?"

"It may very well be possible. But we do not know yet," Zurere spoke. "For now, it could be detrimental to assume the worst. Dokiki might be doing some great work out there."

Pulala gave a scoff quiet enough to go unnoticed by her captain. She knew only too well how much Zurere respected the Senior Private. If there was one thing she hated, it was when people played favorites.

Pulala felt something tap on her shoulder. When she turned to the side, Latata began to sign something to her. He must have been reading the notes she'd taken.

"Oh!" she realized. "Um, Captain, Latata wants to know what we're going to do about Xuyiyi."

"The Combat Medic?" Zurere considered him for a moment. "He should be fine on his own right now. He's a fast learner," he spoke in a gruff voice. Pulala scribbled down his answer for Latata to see. Latata frowned.

"He'll be all right," she signed to him—something that even she herself didn't fully believe.

She always had known a lot about Pekopon and all the technology it had. The problem was, Xuyiyi didn't come from a place with much technology. He didn't even know how the communicators worked.

She wasn't sure how he'd fare at all.

* * *

Xuyiyi sat alone on the grass, frowning as he held the intimidating communication device in his small, inexperienced hands.

Xuyiyi was sure he had recorded his message to Zurere properly, stating his location. But how to send it? His eyes scanned the device and all its buttons. He had already written down all his possible guesses on what each button with their different, funny symbols meant. Now he had pinpointed which was the one he wanted. He had pressed it down and spoken into the communicator. All he had to do now was just rely on his captain to receive it, although he wasn't sure he could count on Zurere to receive it. He didn't particularly like the guy.

Joining the military had brought a lot of surprises for him. It wasn't anything like he had expected.

_"Xuyiyi," his mother told him as he packed his bags, "be careful when you're on Pekopon. It's a big planet—much bigger than any other thing you've seen before."_

_"You can trust me, Mother," Xuyiyi told her dismissively. "It's just a quick scouting mission. We'll be back in no time. You'll see. I'm not afraid of Pekopon."_

_"Yes, do not let it scare you," said his mother. "You are a brave person, the first of our kind to venture off to the unknown and become an invader. You will make us proud."_

It had felt like it was only yesterday when he had spoken with everyone back home. Now, that place was so far away. He wondered if he would ever see them again. Sometimes, it was just so overwhelming that he thought he would suffocate.

It was called homesickness, he knew. He'd never been away from home before, so he wasn't accustomed to the feeling.

"Ah-ha," he spoke to himself. "I figured out how to use this device!"

As Xuyiyi patted down a clump of soil with his hands, a large shadow cast over him. He didn't need to turn around to see who it was.

"Xuyiyi, um… what are you doing to your communicator?" asked the voice.

"I realized that in order to get it to work, first I needed to _plant_ it," said Xuyiyi. "I figure in a day or so, my message will be sent. Aren't I clever, Merion?"

"Ohhh dear, no. That's not how you use it." Merion sat down beside him and dug the communicator from out of the ground. "Xuyiyi, are you _sure_ you don't want my help with this?"

"Absolutely." Xuyiyi snatched it back from him. "_I_ am a trained militant. You are the child of our platoon's enemy. And even if you have been very helpful with my mission so far, I simply cannot entrust highly advanced, alien technology in the wrong hands."

"I've told you before, I'm not going to stop you from invading. I don't care if you guys take over this place." Merion stood up. "And if you weren't so _stubborn_, you'd let me help you find the rest of your platoon."

"I really don't need your help anymore," Xuyiyi told him coldly.

Merion backed away. "What do you mean, Xuyiyi? I thought that…." His eyes widened and a smirk spread across his face. "Ah, I see. You don't _want_ to return to your platoon, do you?"

"What?" Xuyiyi shot his head toward him. "How could you say that? Why—I—I—Of course I want to return to my platoon!"

"Heh. You sure don't seem like it." Merion leaned against a tree.

Xuyiyi turned away from him. "You don't understand what it's like. To be so different from everyone else…. To be an outsider."

"If it's any consolation, you don't have to lecture _me_ on what it's like to be different," Merion told him. He ran his hand through his blond bangs. "When half your friends are aliens… and half don't even know they exist… and here you are, stuck in the middle, never sure where you belong…." He trailed off. "Anyway, buddy, you've got a space pirate, a robot, a Deaf alien, and a _kid_ with you on this mission. You shouldn't be so worried about being different."

The comment made Xuyiyi smile a little. He knew this boy wanted to help. He was a good one, that kid. Perhaps someone he could come to trust.

_No._ _I can't go trusting people willy-nilly,_ thought Xuyiyi. _Not after the last time…._

"Hold still a second," Merion commanded. "That expression on your face—it's perfect." He swiped out his sketchbook and began to capture the features of Xuyiyi's far-off look.

Xuyiyi narrowed his eyes. This was not within his comfort zone. Angrily, he swatted the sketchbook out of Merion's hands. It crashed to the ground, several pages scattering about.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" Merion demanded.

"It displeases me to be stared at like that—as if I'm some _thing_ you can draw," Xuyiyi snarled. "But I'm not a thing. I am a person."

"Relax. I draw everybody," he said. He started to gather up some of the loose pages, messily shoving them back into the binding of his notebook. One page escaped his grasp and floated to Xuyiyi's feet.

Xuyiyi picked it up. "Who is this girl?"

Angrily, Merion snatched it away from him.

"She's very pretty," said Xuyiyi. "Friend of yours?"

"None of your business." He stuck out his tongue.

Xuyiyi stuck out his. "I recognize that look, child."

Merion sighed and took a seat. "Her name's—Hope. We've known each other since… forever. Since I can remember. But I get the feeling she doesn't really like me as much as I like her."

He sat contemplating a moment. Then a thought crossed his mind. "Hey, wait a second!"

"What is it?" asked Merion.

"Hope's the answer!"

"It is?"

"No, no." He shook his head. "Awhile back, before I found you, Hope came to my house, wondering if I'd seen any unfamiliar Keronians. She probably knows where the rest of your platoon is, Xuyiyi!"

He paused. "Oh, okay."

"Come on, let's go see her!" Merion grabbed Xuyiyi's hand and dashed off.

But what Xuyiyi _wasn't_ telling him was the feeling of dread he harbored. How his stomach twisted when he thought of his platoon—and who lead it. That dreaded Zurere. Anyone who happily frolicked with Vipers deserved Xuyiyi's hatred.

He didn't know if he was ready to return to his platoon. What if they were happy that he was gone?

* * *

Merion knew Hope well enough to deduce that she would be at Teri's house around that time of day to tutor him.

But when Teri opened his front door to see a panting Merion, he was quite surprised.

"Um… hi?" he said hesitantly. "I can't spar with you right now, Merion. I'm studying math." Then Teri's eyes went to Xuyiyi. "WASKJDGSKFGS! It's another of those Keronians! How did you find it?"

"Hey." Xuyiyi waved.

"You know where the rest are?" Merion peered over Teri's shoulder. "Is Hope in there?"

"Yeah, she's in here," said Teri. "You can come in and talk to her. But be careful, my parents are home and they don't know about aliens."

Merion gave him a blank look.

"What?" asked Teri.

"Teri, _you're_ an alien," he said.

Teri quietly shut the door on him.

* * *

Teri entered his room bitterly.

"Oh, Teri, you're back," Hope said cheerily. "Just in time to move on to the next unit—"

"Merion's outside. You better go talk to him," Teri told her monotonously. "Stupid Merion… calling _me_ an alien! What a jerk."

Hope listened to what he was muttering. "You… don't remember?" she asked carefully.

Teri looked at her strangely. "Remember _what_?"

An awkward silence encroached them. She let out a nervous laugh. "Welp, I'd better go talk to Merion. See ya!"

Teri frowned. What could that have been about?

* * *

It wasn't long before Hope dragged him back outside and explained the situation. Merion had been harboring the combat medic of the Zurere Platoon for a while now.

"He wasn't sure where to go after his group separated from him," Merion filled in as they biked to the Nishizawa manor. "So I offered to give him shelter. I didn't tell my parents of course, because, well… my mom hates aliens."

Xuyiyi frowned. "Does the entirety of Pekopon know of our existence? Why didn't anyone tell use this before they _sent_ us to this frog-forsaken planet?!"

"Uh, sorry," Merion shrugged.

Eventually they reached the manor, hiding Xuyiyi as they entered the building. They barged into the room where Hanayu and Himani sat with the rest of the Zurere platoon.

The three other frogs stared at Xuyiyi in surprise. Xuyiyi gulped. The pit in his stomach grew larger. This was the moment he'd been fearing….

"Xuyiyi!" they all shouted ecstatically. Latata bounded up to him and gave him a tight hug. Xuyiyi, a little touched, hugged back. He gave Pulala a hug next, since she was also happy to see him. He hugged the last frog, too—then just as quickly stepped away when he realized it was Zurere. Oops.

"Very… nice to see you, Combat Medic," Zurere greeted. He coughed awkwardly and looked away.

Xuyiyi turned to Merion and shook his hand. "Thank you for transporting me here. Now, everyone. It's good to see you all again. But what's the plan for the scouting mission? And where's the ship?"

All eyes in the room flitted to Teri. He laughed nervously and started scratching at his neck.

"The ship is—" Zurere exchanged a glance with the others.—"not in prime condition."

Pulala snorted. "What an understatement."

"It would be best for now that we stay in hiding," said Zurere. "Certainly not here, where security cameras are ubiquitous and we risk exposure with each step we take."

"Ah. So you're suggesting I stay with Merion, then," Xuyiyi figured. Why did he even bother coming there?

"Well, we've _all_ agreed upon this," said Pulala. "It's what's best for now. We still need to find Senior Private Dokiki."

"And there's no way I'm letting Latata out of my sight for _too _long," said Teri, cracking his knuckles. Latata shivered. Though he didn't know what Teri said, he could easily guess.

"You have to keep in hiding," said Himani.

"Why?!" Xuyiyi demanded. "Pekoponians already know of our existence! What's there to hide when you all already know about us?"

The humanoids in the room exchanged glances.

"Not all Pekoponians," said Merion. "Just us."

"Consider yourself lucky that you weren't already snuffed out by government spies and dissected," Teri threatened.

After that, the Keronians didn't argue with them so much.


	24. They Had a Party without Me

**23 chapters and only now do I show the Keroro Platoon. Sorry about that. I avoided them for awhile because I'm always afraid I'll write them out of character. But let's see where this goes.  
**

**-Scissors**

* * *

"Ah, is it warm in here!" Keroro stretched his feet further under Aki's kotatsu, savoring the waves of warmth radiating from underneath. "You know, living in a mansion can do things to a person. You start to miss the simple things in life."

Giroro took the cup of tea away from his lips and set it on the top of the kotatsu, tossing him a challenging look. "Like warmth?"

"Warmth? Nah." He shook his head and gestured to his former platoon that sound around him. "I meant this."

Out from the kitchen, Aki walked in as she set another tray of tea down on the kotatsu. "Well, it's always so nice of you all to come down and spend some time with me," she told them, sitting down at the edge of the low table. "Your visits are always something I look forward to." She rested her cheek on the palm of her hand and gazed at them. "It makes me so happy to hear how you're all doing."

"Thanks, Lady Mom!" said Keroro. He still kept his nickname for her even after all these years. "Sorry that Master Fuyuki and Master Natsumi couldn't make it."

"Oh, that's all right," she said forgivingly. "I see them practically all the time, anyway. And ever since Haru, well…." She wiped her eyes. "You five are my family, too. Though nowadays, you always seem to be so busy! It's always a treat having you come down here."

"The source of nostalgia is always the perfect place for a meeting," Dororo remarked, taking a small sip of his tea.

"Especially for me, since I used to _live_ here," Keroro said with a laugh. He leaned over and playfully elbowed Giroro. "At least I don't spend any special memories with a pile of grass, eh? Gero, gero, gero!"

Giroro pushed his arm off of him.

"I know!" Aki said, clapping her hands together. "Since you're all here, why don't we do something fun?"

"Like a game?" asked Tamama.

"Somewhat." There was a glint of excitement in Aki's eyes. "Why don't you all try to invade again? Just once. Do something fancy with that base still underneath the house—attract a Nyororo, cook up some space okonomiyaki."

"Eh, a bit _too_ nostalgic," Keroro put in, which earned a laugh of agreement from Kururu.

"Oh, but imagine how much fun it would be!"

They all thought a moment. It might be fun; who knew?

"What, and put _him_ in charge again?" Giroro stuck a thumb over at Keroro. "I don't think so. Just look at how it turned out last time."

"Like you wanted to invade," Keroro shot back.

"I did." He folded his arms across his chest. "I did, at the time. Don't get me wrong. Hardest thing I've ever done was give up the invasion…." He let his words linger. "But plans change, Keroro."

"Ku ku ku, yeah, do they ever!" Kururu remarked sarcastically.

"_What_? They—they didn't change _that_ much…."

"Eh, think about it. You went from invading a planet to trying to protect it in such a small amount of time," he pointed out, fingers idly brushing across the keys of his laptop.

"Five years isn't very short, you know."

"Well, not to someone with a one-track mind," Kururu teased.

Giroro glared at him from across the kotatsu. "Are you _trying_ to start a fight?"

"Nah, I'm just saying what's on my mind. Ku ku ku ku!"

Giroro scoffed and leaned back.

Five years was plenty of time for things to change. No, Giroro corrected in his head. You didn't need five years. Change could happen any time. Although, come to think of it, he _had_ wasted a lot of time on Pekopon being so wishy-washy with what he wanted—the invasion, or his personal attachment to Natsumi? As one grew older and older, it was easier to see how precious time was, how much every moment needed to be savored.

Or… maybe it was parenthood that did that to someone.

"Let's change the subject," he finally said with a sigh.

"Okay," said Keroro.

"Hey, did you see the new miniature cakes the Nishizawa bakery is coming out with?" asked Tamama. "The ones with a filling that tastes like strawberry jelly and coconut? Best thing _ever_!"

"I like the starfruit-flavor ones, myself," said Keroro.

"Do they have natto flavor?" asked Dororo.

"What about curry?"

Aki giggled. "Sounds like I know what all of you have been thinking about."

"Yeah," Keroro nodded.

"How's the Pekopon Protection League been going?" she asked them.

"Steady progress, as always," Giroro answered for her. "It's busy every day. Uh, mostly in dealing with Yutoto and the twins."

"Oh!" Keroro remembered. "Lady Mom, have you heard about the twins' latest invasion plot yet?"

"No. I'd love to have you tell me about it," said Aki. She always loved hearing the latest news about their conquest. Odd as it was, Aki delighted in knowing that two of her grandchildren aspired to take over the world. It was kind of strange.

Keroro, Tamama, and Giroro quickly recounted the events of the attempt.

Aki laughed. "I see. Using a Viper suit to distract the soldiers—Yutoto and the twins are so clever!"

"Only wish they could be clever and _not_ cost us any equipment and time in doing so," Giroro huffed. He threw Keroro and Tamama a glare that read, _Control your child!_

Aki let out another laugh. "My little grandbabies are already on their way to becoming invaders," she said as she wiped away a tear.

"Yeah, and then they'll be the PPL's greatest threat _and_ its greatest asset," said Tamama. "How ironic is that?"

"Oh, if only manga creators today could see the twins," said Aki with a sigh.

Giroro moaned. "For the past few weeks, they've been all the PPL is worried about."

"Guess it was inevitable that someone took on the task of invading after we gave it up, huh?" Tamama muttered.

"You know what?" said Giroro. "A lot was inevitable. Let's not talk about the invasion."

"I for one am very glad with the way things turned out," Dororo put in. "I think it was fate that—"

"Ku ku ku."

"Is the tea all gone?" Tamama asked.

Aki stood up. "I better go get some more."

"I'm glad we don't have to worry about the invasion anymore," Dororo tried to continue. "I—"

"Wow, you ever notice how empty a house is when only one person lives there?" Tamama asked.

"I was _talking_ here!"

"Hey, you think Omiyo's still around?"

"Speaking of Omiyo, remember that one invasion plan we had where—"

"Can we _please_ stop talking about the invasion!" Giroro shouted.

Silence fell in the room.

Giroro clenched his jaw. Dororo and Tamama exchanged a nervous look. Kururu didn't laugh.

"This was a bad idea. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you all here," said Keroro, standing up. "It's quite clear now that _some_ of us"—he shot a glance at Giroro—"are still touchy and sensitive about the invasion—which, _might I add_, ended fourteen years ago!—so much that we can't even hold a conversation together anymore." He threw his hands up. "This is why we stopped doing this, guys. It never works."

Giroro stood up. "You—You think it's the _invasion_?" He shook his head. "No, look, Keroro. The invasion's gone. Done with. Everyone knows that by now. But"—He thrust his hand out—"I just have to say this much. We're Keronians! We can't change that, no matter how much we try! Even if we're now supporting what used to be our enemy… even if we can appear Pekoponian from time to time…" He clenched his hands into fists. "Even if we've completely thrown aside everything we used to be, it isn't enough. No matter what we do, we can't change one thing about ourselves." He placed his hand to his chest.

"Our belts?" Tamama guessed.

"No," Giroro explained, looking at him. "We'll always be Keronians deep down." His eyes went to Keroro. "Look. My point is, _some_ of us still have families out there, back on Keron—families that we can _never_ see again because we've violated practically every single rule in the book! Even the rules that weren't even _in_ the book! And now they're gone forever from our lives."

Kururu clapped his hands. "That was a beautiful speech. Definitely going into the scrapbook."

Keroro shook his head. "Thought you were finally happy with this, Giroro."

Giroro leaned forward as if to throttle both of them, though unsure of which one to go for first, as they were both equally irritating.

"Giroro, Giroro." Dororo stood up, trying to calm him. "Hold on for a second. You have a _new_ family, now. Here on Pekopon," he said to him. "We all left some things behind when we chose this life. We all have a few regrets lingering—" He paused. "…a few loose ends that have yet to be tied." He sighed. Then he locked eyes with him. "But some things are more important than that."

Giroro seemed to calm down a bit. He inhaled slowly, held his breath for a second, and released it. He sat back down. "Yes. I know."

"Yeah, your kid for one," said Keroro. "Heard he's failing school—"

He was cut off as Giroro lunged forward to intimidate him. "Teri is _not_ failing. He's just been having some…" How to explain it? "…organization issues."

" 'Organization issues' that happened to last for _several years_," Kururu helped. "Ku ku. You better find that kid a tutor or something."

Giroro opened his mouth briefly, as if to bring up Hope, then quickly shut it. "Well, whatever." He turned away from Kururu. "Anyway, sorry… I guess. About the whole invasion thing. You're right, Keroro. It's fourteen years in the past. High time I stop thinking about it."

Aki leaned against the door frame, watching them converse from there with a smile on her face.

After a brief moment of silence, Dororo finally spoke up. "You know what I think we need?"

"What?"

"We need to all meet back together this coming New Year." He shut his eyes cheerily. "We haven't done that for ages—not since the kids were really young."

Keroro scratched his head. "Oh, yeah. I remember that. That was around the time we decided to put an end to the invasion."

"We really ought to bring that back," Dororo suggested. "I think we _all_ need that again."

Everyone else nodded in agreement. Dororo had a point. They'd stopped having such a huge New Year's reunion because of PPL work that started about nine years ago since the creation of the group.

"Dororo." Aki brought herself off of the door frame. "I think that sounds like a great idea."

* * *

That morning, Teri stormed into the cellar in the Nishizawa manor that the frogs had been using to meet. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, holding up bundles of paper.

"We dunno," Pulala answered in a singsong voice.

"I didn't bike all the way to this manor just for you to say you don't know what it is!" He tossed the papers onto their table. "_Somebody_ gave Latata notes on your scouting plans. He left them on my bed. Who was it?!"

"What's the problem with fulfilling our mission here, Pekoponian?" asked Xuyiyi coldly.

"The _problem_ is that you're invaders. I thought you'd be grateful for us giving you shelter here, but I see now that we need to turn you in to somebody." Teri spread his fingers through his bangs. He cast an angry glare at his cousins, who also sat with the platoon. "And what are you two doing here?" he demanded.

"We want to take over the world too," said Himani. Beside him, Hanayu played with one of Pulala's grenades.

"Yeah, Teri, relax a little—" Hanayu accidentally pulled out the pin. "Oops."

The room exploded.

Teri blinked through the ash coating his face and angrily wiped it off. "I've had enough of you _brats_," he told them.

"Please, Teri. It was my mistake," Pulala told him. "Don't get angry with the twins. They're our greatest asset right now."

"I'll show _you_ a great asset!" Teri threatened.

He was about to lunge at her when the cellar door opened, spilling light into the room.

A dark blue Keronian poked his head in, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Hanayu, Himani, what are you doing causing explosions so early in the morning? People are sleeping here," he yawned.

"Yutoto," Hanayu whimpered.

The Zurere Platoon exchanged confused looks.

Yutoto rubbed his eyes. As his vision cleared, he took in the sight. Then he shouted.

"WHAT! What's the meaning of all this?!"

"We could, uh, ask you the same thing," said Zurere. "Who are you?"

"Who are _you_?!" demanded Yutoto.

Zurere hopped onto the top of the table and thrust out his cutlass. "We are the proud Zurere Platoon, tasked with scouting this pitiful planet for invasion by the Keron Forces—"

"Yeah, yeah, heard it all before." Yutoto cut him off and took a seat at the table. He cast a nasty glare at the twins for not inviting him. "So what's the plan?"

"The plan?" spoke Zurere. "You're not really part of this—"

"Part of this platoon, huh? And I suppose _they_ are?" he shouted, throwing his arm in Hanayu and Himani's direction. "Oh, and I suppose Teri's part of the platoon too?"

Teri backed away in confusion. Who was this Keronian? How did he know his name?

"And how long have _you_ two known about this?" Yutoto shouted at the twins. "How long has this platoon been staying in this manor and you've _never_ even bothered to tell me about it?! To tell me that I finally had the opportunity to join a real platoon?" His eyes cast downward, his lip quivering.

"Hey, no need to get so touchy," Pulala huffed.

"No need for you to patronize me!" he shouted. "You don't understand."

"I don't understand either," Teri offered unhelpfully.

"Hush it, kid," said Yutoto. Teri quieted. "Look." He sat forward. "I _need_ to join your platoon. I'm an invader too, you see."

Xuyiyi leaned in as if to speak, but Zurere held him back. They were already missing Dokiki from their group, so forming an alliance with this kid might be in their favor. Not to mention all the interrogation they would have to do. Why was this stray Keronian on Pekopon? Why didn't the military know about this? How did these Pekoponian kids know about him? It didn't make any sense.

"What are your strengths?" asked Zurere.

Teri grabbed at his hair. He couldn't believe this! They were bringing _another_ dangerous alien into their platoon? He was so confused.

"Martial arts," Yutoto answered.

Zurere shook his head. "Latata over there is already our combat expert. You won't compare to him."

"Strategy," Yutoto listed. "Drive. Laser sword-fighting. Energy channeling." Something sparked in his eyes. "Ruthlessness. If you need a demonstration, I'd be happy to give one. Oh, also I have a secret training base—"

Zurere waved his hand. "Fine. We'll train you as a recruit." He was done. At this point, he wasn't even going to question things. He had given up trying to figure out what the frog was going on with Pekopon. He'd let this kid join. He didn't give a crap anymore.

"YES! All my hard work has finally paid off!" Yutoto cheered. Seeing everyone staring at him, he quieted down and settled back into his seat. "Ahem. I mean, very well."

Zurere pointed his cutlass at him. "Now, why don't you lead us to this base of yours?"

Smugly, Yutoto hopped out of his seat and led them out of the cellar. "See ya, Teri," he waved as he passed Teri.

Teri scratched his head. His brain was hurting. He needed to go home. He couldn't remember for what he'd come to the manor, anyway.

* * *

The day was drawing to a close and the Zurere Platoon scattered to their temporary shelters. It turned out that Yutoto's demonstration of his skills at the training base had taken almost an entire day. Clearly the kid had a lot to show off.

"Hey, why isn't _she_ leaving?" Yutoto asked Himani and Hanayu when he noticed that Pulala, unlike the other frogs, did not leave the manor.

"She's been… staying with us," Hanayu said cautiously. "In the time you've been gone on your vacation with Eternity, she's, well, kind of bonded with us! So welcome her as a new member of our group, if you will."

"Yes, Pulala is to be treated with utmost respect," Himani agreed.

"Aw, you guys!" Pulala covered her cheeks, drinking in the praise.

Yutoto did not seem so impressed. He lunged toward her, as if to startle her. "I see how it is. You two were trying to replace me, weren't you?"

"What?" Himani shook his head. "No!"

"Well get this, lady." Yutoto poked his finger onto Pulala's chest aggressively. "I was _created_ to invade. Don't you dare think once about taking that away from me."

Pulala glared back at him. There was nothing to take away. She was a trained prodigy. Yutoto was a wannabe.

"Guys, please get along," Hanayu said, yawning.

The two tadpoles crossed their arms and glared at each other.

* * *

When Hanayu and Himani went to bed, and Yutoto headed off toward his own room at the other hall, Pulala stopped him.

"Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot," she told him.

Yutoto stepped on hers.

"Hey! Quit it. I just wanted to ask you some questions," she said.

Yutoto crossed his arms.

"I don't know how a Keronian ended up on Pekopon like this, especially since you're not part of a platoon. Aren't you?"

"I am today," he said.

"But you must have been here awhile, is my point," she went on. "What I want to know is…" She fidgeted with her fingers. "…do you know anything about the previous platoon that was here? The Keroro Platoon?"

"What do I look like, an information dealer?" Yutoto sighed. "I'm sleepy, lady. I'm turning in for the night."

He walked passed her with no other words.


	25. Living in Oblivion

—One week ago—

* * *

Senior Private Dokiki had an important task: track down the platoon's mangled ship.

Her search had been a long one. She had trekked for miles over the Pekoponian terrain, only to be attacked by a pack of dogs, tripped on by Pekoponian pedestrians, hit by many automobiles, and squashed by a falling piano. She had thought she was at the end of her rope. None of that mattered now, of course. For days she had been tracking the location of her ship, which finally led her to a single door between two buildings.

Inside the door was a house. There were many voices from within, so Dokiki quickly hid herself and began her search in each room. But she could not find any ship.

Feeling her mission was futile, she waited until the people in the house were out of sight and dashed to the front door, knocking it open.

She did not see the Pekoponian streets and trees beyond. Instead, she found herself staring into the void of space. A shadow cast over her.

Dokiki felt an electrical tremor running through her. Nerves, she told herself, even though she could see the sparks of electricity.

"You won't find anything interesting out there," spoke a voice behind her. That person shut the door that led into space. Slowly, Dokiki turned around and spotted a young Pekoponian boy rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Why are you in my house?" he asked.

_Calm yourself, Dokiki,_ she told herself. _This is what you trained for. When you can't lay low, you must deceive!_ She assessed the details of this encounter. Before her was an impressionable Pekoponian, uhh—what was the word?—pup. As every Keronian knew, Pekoponians weren't the brightest of creatures.

"I am an animal friend," Dokiki lied, "here to protect your home from evil spirits!"

"Suuure, okay," said the boy. He took her by the arm and started to drag her away. "You can come to my room. The front door operates trans-dimensionally, so you won't be able to leave unless you calibrate it properly."

_I didn't know Pekopon has such technology,_ thought Dokiki. Clearly, it was a planet she had underestimated.

When they entered the boy's room, he shut the door and took a seat on his bed. "So. Who are you _really_?"

"I told you. An animal friend," said Dokiki.

The kid adjusted his glasses. "Well you _look_ like a robot."

Dokiki opened her mouth as she processed a response. "Yes. I'm a _robot_ animal friend."

"Uh-huhh." The kid looked up and down her battered figure. "My name's Oblivion. I'm part of the Junior PPL. Well… I suppose you wouldn't know what that is. Anyway do you want to be friends?" He sneezed.

"Uhhh." Dokiki looked around the room for a means of escape. "I'm actually on a mission—a friendly animal mission. It's _very_ crucial that I complete it, you see—" Suddenly an idea struck her. "Sure, I'll be your friend, kid."

Oblivion's eyes brightened. "You will?"

"Certainly. But you need to find me a spaceship first." She bopped him on the nose. "That's how I'll know for certain that you want to be my friend."

"Okay!" He hopped to his feet. "But I don't know where to find a spaceship."

"When I came to you, I left my spaceship somewhere in this house," Dokiki fibbed. "If you find it, we'll go on many exciting, uhh, _friendly_ animal adventures together!"

"All right I'll go look for a spaceship!" Oblivion said all in one breath. He dashed out of the room.

Dokiki let out a sigh of relief, leaning against the wall. "This is _not_ why I joined the military." She activated her communicator. "Senior Private Dokiki reporting to Staff Sergeant Zurere. I'm in pursuit of the ship right now, although my search has exposed me to the Pekoponians. I will return as soon as I find a way to escape. Also, I'm a little worse for wear, so don't count on contacting me. I'll find you when I can."

She waited for the message to send. Instead, her arm exploded.

"Ugh! That happened last week, too," she griped.

Oblivion entered back into the room. Quickly, Dokiki hid her damaged, smoking arm behind her back.

"Sorry, no spaceship," he told her.

"What?! But my tracker led me directly to this place!" She threw her arms up into the air in exasperation. Several parts fell on the ground. "I mean, uh, that's too bad, kid." She grinned and kicked the bolts and screws away.

Oblivion eyed her suspiciously. "Do you need help with that?" he asked slowly.

"Nope. It's normal for robot animal friends."

"Does it happen a lot?"

"I'm good." She flashed him a smile. Little did this oblivious Pekoponian know that she was neither a robot, nor an animal, and _not_ a friend. His name was quite fitting because he was totally oblivious.

_If you're not a robot, how do you explain the bolts and screws that came out of your arm?_ asked a nagging voice in the back of her head.

_Shut up, voice_, she told it.

_You shut up,_ said the voice.

Oblivion interrupted her mental conversation. "Do you wanna just find your platoon some other way?"

"Platoon? What?" Dokiki gasped. "Who—who said anything about a platoon?" _Ah, I see. "Platoon" must mean something else in Pekoponian._ "I don't need to find a platoon."

Oblivion shrugged. "Suit yourself." He sat back down on his bed and picked up his DS.

An awkward silence passed by. Dokiki sat down. She stood back up. She started pacing.

"So…" Dokiki twiddled her fingers—what she had left of them. "You think you could open that front door for me now?"

"No," said Oblivion. "You're staying with me."

Another electrical spark—er, _nervous twitch_ ran through Dokiki. She didn't like how Oblivion said that. "Are you—are you sure?"

"You're my _robot animal friend_, aren't you?" Oblivion rolled over onto his back. "I wanna keep you."

"You can keep me!" she shouted. "Just as soon as I go get something really quick." Desperate, she swung the door open. She would _not_ let herself become a prisoner of war—especially not to some oblivious Pekoponian kid!

"You really shouldn't go," said Oblivion. He wasn't holding his DS anymore. In his hand was—what was that? An electrical plug?

The next thing she knew, Dokiki was on the ground, sparking, and she was feeling very sleepy as her systems were shutting down.

* * *

When Dokiki came to, it was morning. The Pekoponian Oblivion was in his bed, fast asleep.

Dokiki stood up with immeasurable ease. Glancing down, she noticed that her arms were whole. Odd. In fact, her body no longer seemed so battered from her wear-and-tear journey. She was perfect, pristine, flexible, and hadn't felt so wonderful since she left Keron. It was astounding.

Astounding, but not enough so to distract her from her mission—escape. Quietly, so as not to awake the sleeping child, Dokiki turned the knob of Oblivion's door and slowly crept out of the room.

_Let's see… now where was that front door?_ She crept around the hallways, sticking closely to the wall so she could peer around each corner. So far the coast was clear…. Wait! There it was—the front door. She stepped forward.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Dokiki froze.

She heard a groan. "Dad, I'm just going to Yutoto's."

Dokiki breathed a sigh in relief and stepped back. Whoever was speaking hadn't seen her. She peered around the corner and spotted a tall blue-haired Pekoponian at the front door, speaking to someone out of her field of vision.

"Why so eager to leave, hm? You already ditched us for a weak. At least eat something before you go, Eternity."

"Not until you clean off all your stupid inventions off the table!" shouted the blue-haired one. "I swear, this place is always a mess whenever…"

The voices faded as Dokiki crept further away from them. Until the blue-haired Pekoponian was out of sight, she had to find a different way out of the house. Looking cautiously over her shoulder, she pressed forward.

All of a sudden, her foot snagged on something and she fell tumbling to the ground.

"Oof!" Dokiki rubbed her face and sat up. She looked down at what she had tripped on. Now she felt bad—It was a baby. An entire baby. Well, more like a toddler. Lady Luck was not in her favor today.

The toddler sat up and stared at Dokiki a moment, her golden eyes boring into hers. Then she stuck her hand in Dokiki's mouth.

"Ack!" Appalled, Dokiki pushed the toddler away. Pekoponian children were so disgusting.

The toddler picked up a small laptop and typed something. She turned the screen to Dokiki. The screen read, _Be grateful, peasant. You now have the Overlord's blessing._

"The—The—Over—" Dokiki lowered her volume, remembering that there were other people in the house. "The Overlord's blessing?"

_Yes. I am the future Overlord of this galaxy,_ the toddler typed.

Dokiki scratched her head. This was no ordinary Pekoponian fledgling. Perhaps she knew the location of Dokiki's ship.

"What is your name, Overlord?" Dokiki whispered.

_My name,_ the toddler typed, _is Sweetie._

Dokiki furrowed her brow.

_However, you shall call me Supreme Ruler,_ the toddler went on._ As my subject, you shall obey my commands._ _Now sit down and put your legs out._

Puzzled, but compliant, Dokiki did as she was told. The toddler crawled onto Dokiki's lap and brought her laptop with her.

"Overlord"—It felt so absurd to say it—"I haven't told anyone else this yet, but I'm an alien invader. My sources tell me that our space ship is located somewhere in this house. Can you tell me where it is?"

_The only space ship residing in this place is gone now,_ typed the toddler. _A creature greatly inferior to myself—Hope—brought it in a while back. It has vanished since then. I would not approach Hope if I were you. She will take photographic evidence of all your failures and flaunt it to every being she knows, under the guise that it is "cute" or "funny." When I rule the universe someday, I will have to banish her. And what a shame it is. She is so good at peek-a-boo._

"Right…" said Dokiki, scratching her cheek. "So, do you know how to get past the front door?"

The toddler's tiny fingers typed away. _It takes rare qualifications. Your legs must be able to support the weight of your body in order to reach the handle._

"I can take care of that much," said Dokiki. "But how do I get it so it won't open up into space?"

The toddler looked at her strangely, then typed, _Why would you want to go anywhere that's NOT space?_

"How do I get to Pekopon?" she specified. "I have no idea what to do."

_Self-doubt is a mortal construct,_ the toddler explained, _built on the belief that your only limitation exists within the constraint of your own lowly imagination. Perhaps that will assist you._

Hearing footsteps approaching, Dokiki took the toddler off her lap. "Have to go," she whispered to the toddler, then dashed off.

As she ran from the footsteps, she checked back on the front door and noticed the blue-haired Pekoponian was still there. She looked around for a means of escape. Seeing nothing else, she dashed back into Oblivion's room and shut the door.

Here she was safe. It was likely the Pekoponians wouldn't enter the room because Oblivion was still sound asleep.

She turned around and inspected the sleeping child. He had left his glasses on a desk beside his bed, where a couple of tools and electronics lay. Cautiously, she approached the sleeping child and poked him. "Hey. Oblivion. _Psst._ Wake up."

Oblivion rolled over, tightening his blankets over him. He omitted a small groan but otherwise remained wholly unmovable.

"Hey! Wake up already!" She hit the kid across the face. Finally that seemed to send a jolt through him, and Oblivion sat up with a whiny, "Oww! What was that for?"

"It's how we wake people up in the friendly robot animal realm," said Dokiki.

Instead of saying anything, Oblivion went back to sleep.

She began to pace around his room. The kid seemed to sleep _forever._ Dokiki didn't risk making any more loud noises to awaken him, because she was terrified the other Pekoponians in the house would find her. She heard of the horror stories of what Pekoponians would do if they found her—torture, dissection, interrogation, the list went on! So she approached her situation with the mindset that this was a stealth mission. She had always been keen on stealth missions. Being a tech officer was never her dream, but for some reason or another, everyone always told her, "Oh, Dokiki, don't be silly, you'll be great with technology! It's like you practically speak the language of computers." To be fair she did take one or two courses in computer hacking and reprogramming in training school, but it never really clicked with her.

The thing was, people were right. She was good with technology and she didn't know why. She liked to call it the "magic touch." Though it wasn't like she enjoyed her job. After all, she was raised to be a killing machine. For whatever reason, the second she stepped into boot camp, her captain replaced the blades she was holding with a keyboard and told her, "wrong sector, kiddo."

She was still bitter.

"So, uh, are you going to mumble to yourself all day about your past?" Oblivion asked behind her.

Dokiki swiveled around. She hadn't realized he'd awoken. She also hadn't realized she was talking out loud. She quickly composed herself. "Will you show me how your front door works?"

Oblivion gave a whimpering "Uh-uh" and rubbed his eyes. "Don't feel good today. I might be sick again."

Dokiki nodded. _At least I can understand that pain. So much of the time I feel like my body is working against me._

"What's your name, by the way?" asked Oblivion.

Dokiki wondered if she should tell this kid her real name or a fake one. Finally she spoke, "Dokiki."

"That's weird for someone who's heartless."

"That's a little rude for someone who's…" She thought a moment. "…you."

"Well, see you later, Dokiki." Oblivion hopped out of bed. "I'm going to go eat breakfast." He walked toward the door.

Dokiki bit her knuckles. "Wait, you can't just leave me here!"

It was too late. He had already left.

* * *

For many days, Oblivion kept her trapped there. Whenever she asked if he would finally open the front door for her, he managed to beat around the bush. Finally Dokiki waited till the house was empty and went to the front door herself. If Oblivion wouldn't let her out of this prison, she would escape without him.

After many attempts of trial and error, she figured out how to work the door. Depending on how she turned the handle, the door would open to various places—space, Keron (why did it open to Keron? What was with this strange house?), some intergalactic market, a few other areas, and at last, Pekopon. Her luck ran out, however. Just as she had taken a whiff of that dry Pekoponian air, she found herself staring at Oblivion.

"Thanks for getting the door for me," he thanked, taking off his shoes. "I just told all my friends about you."

Dokiki screamed internally.

"I told them that I had captured you all by myself," he said. "Which I have."

She tried to find a way out of the situation. "But—but why would you capture an animal friend—"

Oblivion narrowed his eyes. "You're not an animal friend. You're a robot. Why won't you just admit that to yourself?"

At her wit's end, Dokiki gave up. She didn't know what came over her, but before she knew it, she had blurted out her secret. "I'm not a robot. I'm an _alien!_" She quickly covered her mouth.

"Yes," said Oblivion. "A _robot_ alien."

Deciding to ignore his insistence about her technological makeup, Dokiki whispered, "How long have you known I was an alien?"

"Ever since I saw you," he replied. "That's why I can't let you leave. I have to turn you into the Junior PPL so they can take care of you. We can't have any invaders on Pekopon."

"Junior PPL?" she asked, confused.

"Yup." Oblivion plopped down in front of her and began to talk rapidly, only stopping to take a breath in the middle of his sentences. "Kohizou already captured a Keronian you see and so now I have to capture one too because he already"—breath—"found one so I got kind of jealous sorta and it's not fair that everyone thinks he's really cool now so I have to capture a Keronian too from the"—breath—"Zurere Platoon before he finds another one."

Dokiki stared at him. She blinked. "Kid, uh…. Those words that just came out of your mouth? What were they?"

"Kohizou already found a Keronian," Oblivion restated, a whine entering his voice. "It's no fair."

Confusion swept over her. How did regular Pekoponians know about the Keronian invasion? This was dangerous. How many others besides Oblivion and his friends were aware of this? She slumped against the wall in shock.

Oblivion noted her sadness and decided to speak up. "How about we make a deal? I'll teach you to repair yourself the next time you fall apart," he told her, "and you let me capture you."

This was a stupid exchange, thought Dokiki. She didn't need repairing because she _wasn't_ a robot. That was just silly. And why would she willingly let herself become a prisoner of the Pekoponians?

Then it struck her.

Oblivion had mentioned that his friend, "Kohizou," had already found a Keronian.

She got to her feet. "If I let you capture me, will you bring me to the rest of my platoon?"

"Well… sure, I guess," said Oblivion after thinking it over. He didn't see what the problem was. He was only thinking about showing off to everybody how he captured an invader.

"All right," said Dokiki. "It's a deal."

* * *

Oblivion started teaching her how to repair herself right away. Unfortunately, as much as she hated to admit it, the kid made a _good_ point: If she wasn't a robot, then how come there were wires in her back? How come she could detach her legs? How come there was a compartment in her arm? How come she didn't suffocate when she opened his front door to space?

Dokiki had to come to terms with the truth. She was a robot. Shuddering, she realized that a lot of things made sense now.

"Why wouldn't you want to be a robot?" Oblivion asked her the next day. He was showing her how to program her communicator. "I think being a robot would be _awesome_. I would never get sick." He paused to turn away and sneeze.

Dokiki pitied him a little. Here Oblivion was, living out his existence miserably, and she currently had never felt better. "I don't know, I guess…" She bit her lip. She didn't want to tell Oblivion all this personal stuff, but found the words spilling out anyway. "I guess that I always wanted things to be _my_ way. I joined the military to fight, not to be trapped behind some desk with bright lights and fancy buttons. I never wanted to consider that the job I was given was due to _me_, but rather, the stupidity of everyone around me." She smiled softly. It felt kind of good to vent all this. "My dad wasn't helping. I'd always wanted to see him as my actual father, you know, not just some man who _commissioned_ me to make him feel less miserable about his own lonely life, teaching me to blame all my problems on the people I despise." She clenched her fist. "He's still a dad to me. He was the only one who ever supported my dream to fight. He actually wanted me to become an assassin, you know, but…" She blew a puff of air. "…the military _loves_ to spoil our fun."

"That—that's so terrible," said Oblivion. He wiped away some tears, which surprised Dokiki. He was genuinely sad for her. She had never felt pity by anyone before. She'd never had one of these heartfelt conversations. It was kind of lame—but she was also touched. Not that she would tell him that, of course.

By the end of the week, Dokiki was fully accustomed to all her curious functions, and she was ready to uphold her end of the bargain.

"All right, Oblivion," she said. "You can now take me to the rest of my platoon. Tell them that you captured me or whatever." She stuck her wrists out. Oblivion tied them up with rope.

"Sounds good," he said. "Just one problem. I don't actually know where the rest of your platoon is."

Dokiki face-palmed.

"My friends might know," he offered, trying to conceal a grin. "We can ask them."

_Ah, I see,_ thought Dokiki. _He just wants to show me to his friends. I suppose it can't hurt, could it?_ "Let's go then," she said. "What are we waiting for?"

Excitedly, Oblivion grabbed Dokiki by the hand and dashed out of his room. They headed to the front door together—

Then Oblivion froze. "My brother's there," he whispered. Dokiki ducked behind him.

Oblivion's older brother, Eternity, was leaning against the door frame, chatting away on his phone. A bead of sweat trickled down Oblivion's forehead. He didn't know how long this would take. Eternity's phone conversations ranged from anywhere from five minutes to five hours. He was a teenager, after all.

"Yeah, the other two band members are out for a week for some New Year's stuff, but I'll be hanging around," Eternity was saying. He made a face. "What? Yeah, of course I'll come. My parents are making me come, anyway, which is dumb of course, but at least you'll be there too, right? Haha, I know. Hold on a second—" He covered the phone with his hand. "You need something, Oblivion? Or can I have some privacy?"

"S-sorry," said Oblivion. He shrunk away, Dokiki well-hidden behind his bag.

"Yeah, sorry." Eternity put the phone to his ear again. "Nah, it was just my little brother. So anyway, what's new with you?"

Oblivion banged his head against the wall.

"Oblivion! Please quit that, I'm trying to talk," Eternity requested. He went back to his conversation. "What? Really? Good for you! Wait—what new platoon? Another platoon's on Pekopon?"

Oblivion and Dokiki both perked up.

"The Zurere Platoon, you say?" Eternity rubbed his chin. "And you say they're still missing a member… hm…."

"HERE I AM! HERE I AM! I'm the missing member!" Dokiki jumped out from her hiding spot and started waving her arms about wildly.

"Uh…" Eternity started blankly at her. "I'll call you back, Yutoto." He stuffed the phone into his pocket and narrowed his eyes. "_Oblivion_."

Oblivion jumped at the angry tone of voice.

"How long have you been hiding an alien in your room?"

Oblivion gulped. "S-sorry."

Eternity groaned and slapped his hand down his face. "Come on, you two. We're going to the Nishizawa manor." He grabbed Dokiki and Oblivion by the scruff of their necks and angrily stormed out the door to Pekopon.

* * *

The four frogs of the Zurere Platoon, plus Yutoto, were all surprised when a space idol barged into their secret meeting space and plopped Dokiki and Oblivion down on their planning table.

"I believe this one's yours," said Eternity.

"Uh, just Dokiki," Zurere corrected. He pointed at Oblivion and said, "Don't know who he is."

Eternity swiped Oblivion off the table, who shot a glare at him. Oblivion had been so excited to show his friends how he'd captured an alien, and now Eternity had to go and _spoil_ it for him. He crossed his arms and gave him his best pouty look.

"Oh, can it," said Eternity. "You know you should have left that Keronian where you found it."

Oblivion exchanged a look with Dokiki. She shrugged.

Eternity sighed. "Say goodbye and then we're going home."

"Bye, Dokiki," Oblivion waved sadly.

"Bye." Dokiki waved back, then stopped when she noticed that her teammates were watching her awkwardly.

As Eternity left with his little brother, he turned his head over his shoulder and nodded at Yutoto. "Hey. Thanks for telling us where to meet you guys, Yutoto."

Yutoto tossed him the finger-gun gesture. "No prob."

When they left, Pulala gawked at him. "How do _you_ know that celebrity, Yutoto?"

Yutoto shrugged and tucked his arms behind his head. "Eh. I got my connections."

Dokiki just scratched her head and asked, "Who's Yutoto?"

* * *

**My favorite thing about Dokiki being a robot is that I get to mangle her as much as I want.**

**Don't let anyone tell you it took me over a week to write this chapter. That's slander.  
**

**-Scissors**


End file.
